‘No title edge for Gunners’, says Spurs boss

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino does not believe Arsenal’s experience of challenging for the title gives the Gunners an edge in the race at the top.

Spurs take on their fiercest rivals on Saturday, knowing a win at White Hart Lane would open up a six-point gap over Arsene Wenger’s men with only nine Barclays Premier League games left to play.

It could also reduce the lead of Leicester, who are currently three points clear at the summit, as Tottenham look to bounce back from Wednesday night’s 1-0 defeat at West Ham.

Arsenal are the only side in the top three to have gone through the highs and lows of a title race in recent seasons, but Pochettino dismissed the theory that experience could be decisive. “It’s difficult to know,” the Argentinian said. “If they have players that have the advantage to win the title, what happened against Manchester United or Swansea (on Wednesday night)?

“We are capable of beating Manchester City away. (On Wednesday night) against West Ham was difficult, but sometimes we use a lot of topics in football. Football is simple, not too complicated.

“Different clubs sometimes sign a player or a manager with a big background or big trophies behind them. Sometimes they have success and sometimes not.”

“You never know. Football is not an ordinary business. Anything can happen.”

Tottenham chose not to start midfielder Dele Alli at Upton Park after the 19-year-old sustained an ankle injury in the warm-up against Swansea last weekend. Alli, however, came on as a substitute against the Hammers and should be fit to face the Gunners, while Mousa Dembele may also feature after recovering from a groin strain.

On whether Alli might start on Saturday, Pochettino said: “Maybe yes. He played against West Ham 30 minutes. (On Thursday) he is good, but still we need to assess him on Friday.

“We need to assess Mousa on Friday in the last training session. Maybe it is possible he will be selected.”

Tottenham will be eager to respond after an unusually ineffective performance during they which they struggled to match West Ham’s intensityPochettino admitted his side were “poor” in his post-match press conference. but, after analysing the game again on yesterday morning, the Spurs head coach feels confident it was just a blip.“Sometimes the same pass one day, you miss your team-mate the next, sometimes it happens,” Pochettino said.“They’re not robots. They are not machines. We have the right attitude. I think that we fight and sometimes this happens in football.“For me it was an exception. When we analysed the game this morning we feel more happy.“On Wednesday night the feeling was that we missed some passes, we were not playing the normal way that we play – properly. I feel bad after the game.“But today I am happy because the team showed that they want to fight.”

Meanwhile Alexis Sanchez believes Arsenal sometimes “lack the hunger” to become Premier League champions.

The Gunners blew a big chance to increase the pressure on leaders Leicester when they lost 2-1 at home against Swansea on Wednesday night.

Joel Campbell had opened the scoring for Arsenal, who also hit the woodwork on three occasions, but goals from Wayne Routledge and Ashley Williams saw Swansea leave the Emirates Stadium with all three points for the third time in four years.It was a much-changed Swans line-up, showing six alterations from the weekend defeat to Tottenham and with more than an eye on a crunch match at home to fellow strugglers Norwich on Saturday.They picked up the win without head coach Francesco Guidolin, who was admitted to a London hospital with a chest infection, but still managed to dent both Arsenal’s confidence and their title hopes.

However Sanchez, who hit a post in the first half before cracking a second-half free-kick against the crossbar, feels the team is good enough to compete for the title — they just need to show their appetite. “If we go out on to the pitch with hunger to become champions, to win the Premier League or the Champions League we can achieve it,” he told DirecTV.

“There are great players here, I train with them daily and they have got the mentality and the desire to win.

“But sometimes we lack the hunger, the mentality that we are winning 1-0 when we go out on to the pitch. Sometimes we lack this hunger to believe that we can be champions.” To go out on to the pitch feeling that we are already winning 1-0.”

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