Tottenham title pursuit goes on with 2-1 win vs Swansea

Spurs follow up the match against West Ham with another London derby against bitter rivals Arsenal on Saturday.

Pochettino’s first league game in charge at Spurs came at Upton Park in August 2014, when Eric Dier scored a last-minute victor to seal a 1-0 victory.

Tottenham have now won their last six league matches and sit in second place, just two points behind Leicester, as their fans start to dream of a first English top-flight title since 1961.

Tottenham needed goals from Nacer Chadli and Danny Rose in the final 20 minutes to secure their win at White Hart Lane.

“I’m sure Kyle (Walker) will be thankful (fellow right-back) Kieran (Trippier) is here too because Kieran is having a great first season”.

“It wasn’t a plan to play like that but there is only so much you can do sometimes”.

He added: “We don’t think about it, we are thinking about what we are doing well and badly”.

“This sets us up nicely for West Ham and I’m thoroughly looking forward to it”.

Leicester’s Claudio Ranieri said on Monday that Spurs were the favourites to become champions but Pochettino responded 24 hours later, saying he found the suggestion highly amusing.

“We are the surprise, that is fantastic, a good energy, but if we are realistic the real competitors are City, Arsenal and Tottenham. The players are pleased as well, but there is a long, long way to go”.

“He said “my friend, we can win the league”.

“The only focus is to finish as high as possible”.

“In some ways we are already a victim of our own success”. I’d like to believe we can but I don’t want to think that. “The pressure is always on”. Winston Reid (hamstring) could return as could Diafra Sakho (thigh), but it remains to be seen if Enner Valencia will be fit to come back from an ankle issue.

Tottenham’s efforts to get back into the game saw former Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski produce a number of fine saves to maintain Swansea’s lead, but eventually he was beaten. Mousa Dembele (groin), Tom Carroll (Achilles), Jan Vertonghen and Clinton N’Jie (both knee) are on the sidelines.

The hosts continued to press and saw Harry Kane – wearing a mask to protect his broken nose after missing Tottenham’s Europa League win over Fiorentina – denied by a low save from Fabianski.

And he insisted his squad are not speaking about their shock assault on the Premier League although feels they must learn to handle the extra pressure.