Tottenham had to be at their very best when they hosted the impressive Leicester City in the Premier League this afternoon and they were.
Jose Mourinho’s men entered this game knowing that anything less than a win would basically curtail their Europa League ambitions and that nothing short of a disciplined performance would do.
Coming into this game, the special one knew that his players would be up against a very good team even though Brendan Rodgers’ team has been decimated by injuries and he deployed a tactic that he believed would work against the Foxes.
Tottenham won 3-0 and it was a thoroughly deserved win.
After the game, he revealed that his team knew what would work for them and that if they can be quick on the counter, they would cause their visitors problems and they did just that to perfection.
He also hailed Hugo Lloris who made several saves to keep a clean sheet.
Speaking after the game Mourinho said as quoted by the BBC: “I think we were strategically good. We knew what worked for us. Brendan Rodgers did an amazing job since he arrived but in this moment he is in a little bit of trouble with injuries. I know what it is because I had similar problems at the other end.
“He is trying to compensate with the people he lost so we knew that in transition we could win the game. We tried to be very fast after recovering the ball. We did that very well in the first half and in the second half it was about being compact and getting the result.
“You always need your goalkeeper to make a couple of important saves which he did but we were phenomenal. They had a lot of corners and we defended well. I felt very comfortable in the game.”
That win is an important one in Spurs’ bid to end this season inside the Europa League places, they will now hope that other results go their way while they try to win their last game of the season against Crystal Palace.
There is a permutation that does see Spurs miss out on a Europa League spot even if they beat Palace but on balance, they are in a very good position at this moment in time.
Mourinho got his tactics perfect against Arsenal and Newcastle United and he did it again today. Things are starting to look very good.