Eric Dier believes perspective is key when people analyse Tottenham’s start to life under their head coach Nuno Espirito Santo.
Sunday’s victory at Newcastle United has left Spurs in fifth place in the Premier League table, four points off the top and ahead of some of those who finished above the club last season in Manchester United, Leicester City and West Ham.
Espirito Santo has won five of his eight Premier League matches so far, more than 16 of the other teams in the division have managed.
Most notably Spurs are six points up on the corresponding fixtures from last season, without including the win over newly-promoted Watford.
Dier has started every one of Spurs’ eight Premier League matches this season under the new head coach and he explained that with two of the team’s three defeats in the competition, people need to look at exactly what happened.
“You have to have perspective, that’s most important. The Palace game, I got injured after 10 minutes, Japhet got sent off, we were missing players due to international duty, so, a lot of difficulties,” he said just before Sunday’s win.”
“Chelsea, again, perspective. We had a very good first half, we couldn’t keep that consistency for 90 minutes, but we played well in the first half and it was something to build on.
“The one game where there is nothing positive to take away and there are no excuses for is Arsenal.”
“Villa was a huge result for us. We needed it as players, to show a response and that we’re a lot better than we showed against Arsenal.
“Look, one game isn’t enough to repay the fans for that result and what it means to everyone, but we’re in a good place and we need to continue to try to build.”
He added: “We’re all starting to find our feet – new manager, new set up, a lot of new faces in the dressing room – so hopefully we’ll hit the ground running this time after the international break.”
Tottenham did, making it back to back wins in the Premier League, following those three derby defeats.
Now they continue their run of four away games with a trip to Vitesse Arnhem in the Europa Conference League on Thursday night before a return to derby action in the league on Sunday at West Ham.
(Football London)
