Mauricio Pochettino convinced his Tottenham 'winners' can handle pressure of title race

Mauricio Pochettino has delivered a passionate defence of his Tottenham “winners” by insisting they can handle the pressure of the title race.

The spotlight falls on Spurs this week following their FA Cup semi-final defeat by Chelsea. They travel to Crystal Palace on Wednesday with memories of last season’s loss of form still fresh in fans’ minds.

As they chased the title, Spurs took only two points from their final four games and Leicester finished top, with Arsenal overtaking Pochettino’s team for second place.

Chelsea are four points ahead of second placed Spurs with the chance to increase that gap to seven when they play Southampton tonight/on Tuesday.

Asked about Spurs’ mental strength, Pochettino said: “[There are] no doubts. To have the chance to win titles you need to arrive at that level and not even two years ago, we were so far away

“It’s important to have memory. We started to compete only in the last two seasons. Last season we finished third, Tottenham’s best finish in Premier League history, and now we are second fighting with the big sides.

“We have a completely different project from them and the mentality is fantastic. We want to win, always. But when you compete with Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool – come on.

“The players deserve full credit and people should forget that idea [about mentality- because it’s not true. They are winners. It is another thing is to win titles, but they are winners.”