Mauricio Pochettino predicts where Tottenham will finish this season after beating them last night

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Mauricio Pochettino has backed Tottenham Hotspur to challenge for the Premier League title after beating them with Chelsea last night.

The former Spurs boss spoke to Viaplay after guiding his side to a 4-1 win at Tottenham on Monday evening.

Nicolas Jackson bagged a hat-trick on the night after Cole Palmer had cancelled out Dejan Kulusevski’s opener.

But that barely scratches the surface in what was a chaotic 90 minutes in North London.

Cristian Romero was sent off for a reckless challenge in the 33rd minute which led to a Chelsea penalty and Destiny Udogie was given his marching orders just 10 minutes into the second half.

Despite playing a large part of the game with nine men, Spurs battled away and had a couple of opportunities to level the scoring after Jackson put Chelsea ahead in the 75th minute.

But the Blues striker completed his hat-trick in stoppage time and finally sealed the points for Pochettino’s men.

And after returning to Spurs for the first time since he was sacked back in November 2019, Pochettino has backed his former side to challenge for the title. 

Pochettino backs Spurs to challenge for title

Speaking to Viaplay, Pochettino believes his old side will challenge for the title despite yesterday’s result.

“Overall I think we were better and deserved the win,” he said. “The credit is massive to our players because we forced them to make a mistake, to get some injuries, and think a little bit that they were going backwards against a team for me which is going to be a contender for the title.”

Spurs were yet to taste defeat in the league before a disappointing result on Monday evening.

They remain just a point behind Manchester City in second place but Postecoglou will have to deal with several key absences after last night’s game.

Indeed, Micky van de Ven and James Maddison were both forced off with injuries while Romero will be banned for the next three games.

Udogie will also miss this weekend’s clash at Wolves and the next few games look set to test Spurs’ depth.