Pochettino has “no doubt” that Spurs will finish top four

Tottenham Hotspur christened their new home on Wednesday evening with a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, the first of five games this season at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The win puts them back in third place in the table, two above Chelsea and Arsenal (but with the Gunners having a match in hand), and three above Manchester United.

The race for the top four is likely to go down to the wire this season, but after Wednesday’s showing, Mauricio Pochettino said that he has “no doubt” that Spurs will be in the top four when all is said and done.

“Of course. I told you I am so confident that we will finish in the top four. There’s no doubt. I believe in my players. I trust in them, because we deserve it. We worked against a lot of circumstances and I think this group of players and staff, and of course everyone in this club deserves to be in the Champions League next season because we’ve worked so hard to deliver that moment.

“We are here now and of course it’s true there’s a lot of work to do and we’re competing with big clubs that invest a lot of money during a massive period. Of course we are competing with different tools but we have the belief and today we have our new home and our fans were amazing. It’s going to be an important part of the success of the team at the end of the season.”

The first real challenge of that Pochettino’s belief comes next Saturday against Huddersfield, but before that they will play Manchester City at home in the first tie of their Champions League quarterfinal series next Tuesday. It’s the first of three meetings between City and Spurs within the span of 11 days, and while all of them are important, a result in the league would have a huge significance not only on Spurs’ chances of finishing top four, but also the title race.

Meanwhile, Pochettino also was asked about Joe Lewis, who got off his yacht and made a rare visit to Spurs’ home ground, sitting in the corporate box beside chairman Daniel Levy. Pochettino, apparently, wasn’t even aware that Spurs’ reclusive billionaire owner was even there.

“He’s here? I don’t know. I saw Daniel before the game. Nobody said to me he’s here. If I have the possibility to say hello of course I will. If he invites me to his new boat to play pilot then okay!”