Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham United beat Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane at the weekend.
Spurs were beaten 1-0 by West Ham at White Hart Lane at the weekend, and their performance was well below par.
Tottenham just never clicked into top gear, as they were beaten at their new stadium for the first time.
But Pochettino claims that Tottenham were actually the better side in the first half against West Ham, and they ran further their their London rivals.
“Why [did Tottenham look tired]? We ran 4km more than West Ham, 114 and them 110,” Pochettino pointed out.
“When you lose the game it’s easy to say tired. It’s wrong. We were OK, only we didn’t find a way to win. We were better than them in the first half, didn’t score, in the second half they were better in transition and create chances and we conceded a goal and in the end it was difficult to score, but the problem is not that we were tired but they were clinical in front of goal and we had chances but didn’t take them.”
West Ham fans will almost certainly argue that Pochettino’s comments about Spurs being the better side in the first-half were misplaced.
Even in the opening 45 minutes, Spurs did little to trouble West Ham, with a collection of half chances the best they could muster.
In the end it was a goal from Michail Antonio which separated the two sides, as the West Ham attacker latched on to a through ball and blasted it beyond Hugo Lloris.
Spurs will need much better if they are to progress this evening, when they take on Ajax in the Champions League.
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