League Cup loss can drive Spurs into top four, says Townsend

It just makes us more hungry to fight for fourth, says Townsend

Andros Townsend believes Tottenham Hotspur’s young team will learn from their Capital One Cup final defeat to Chelsea and have the quality and the schedule to claim a top-four finish this season.


Spurs host Swansea City with the league their sole focus having been eliminated from the Europa League by Fiorentina and losing at Wembley within four disappointing days. Mauricio Pochettino’s side are six points from fourth-place Manchester United with a game in hand.

Spurs are at Queens Park Rangers on Saturday but the North London club have failed to win any of their last five matches in all competitions.

They have games against both Manchester clubs to come, as well as a trip to Southampton, but retain hope that a late rally can force passage into the Champions League qualification places.

“We’re out of two competitions but that just makes us more hungry to fight for fourth place in the Premier League,” Townsend said. “It’s all to play for and there’s no excuses about the schedule, Thursday-Sunday, any more. It’s just straight weekend games until the end of the season and, hopefully, we’ll be good enough to get fourth place.”

The winger added: “We’re a relatively young and inexperienced team and our confidence was booming ahead of the final, so we were extremely disappointed to lose, but this side will have many occasions to play in finals.

“We went toe to toe with one of the best teams in European football, having beaten them in the league a few months ago. Hopefully that was just the start. We’ll only get better. We’re on the beginning of our journey and, hopefully, we can lift a trophy in a few years’ time. For now, the schedule gives us a focus, a chance to train a bit more and come into games fresher, and prove whether we’re good enough to finish in the top four.”

The sense the team are still developing and will benefit from the experience at Wembley was reiterated by the England right-back, Kyle Walker. “I feel like one of the old ones at 24,” he said. “We have to be mature about it. That was the first final, and they will play in a lot of finals because there are some top class players in there. I have faith in them.

“We are professionals, we have a job to do from now until the end of season and hopefully we will be where we want to be at the end of season.

“Now we take it one game at a time. If we keep winning, playing as we have been in recent weeks, and others drop points then we will pull ourselves up there. We’ve had some tricky fixtures, going away to Anfield and to Florence, but we have a run of games starting with Swansea. Hopefully they will be on the back foot a little bit given how we played against Chelsea, and we can take the game to them and show the Premier League what we can do.”


By Dominic Fifield, Guardian