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Hripsime Hayrapetyan

21-02-2020 | 18:59 Football
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Press Conference: Jose Mourinho on Erik Lamela, Tanguy Ndombele, reaching Premier League top four and more

Tottenham will be on action again for their Premier League clash against Chelsea. The Spurs are sitting on the 5th place of the league table, having one point gap with the Blues. The upcoming fixture will give Jose Mourinho's side the chance to rise to the league top four if winning. However, the Spurs injury problems and lack of recovery could create difficulties for the club's success over Frank Lampard's side. Ahead of the match, Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has met the press. The club boss has revealed Erik Lamela will feature for the league match against Chelsea. Speaking on the player, he said: "Not training with the squad, being protected to be in conditions to give us some time in the next time. A player I like very, very much, I’ve always liked, but a difficult season for him, lots of injuries and problems. An incredible spirit to recover, work and didn’t even go home to Argentina in days off. Stayed here working hard, trying to give us what he gave in last game after no training, no conditions. Tomorrow will be the same, he’ll be here to help." The club coach has also given an injury update on Tanguy Ndombele, saying:
"I can only speak about three months and three months of small injuries, setbacks, difficult to reach a good physical level. Playing one match and then getting injured again. So difficult, difficult time. (On the benefits of his new training programme) At least he’s not been injured in the last few weeks, he played a good 30 minutes in the last game and it was a game of high intensity. And hopefully he’ll only improve. I hope that the first time he plays a match in the starting line-up, he can play and be on the pitch for 60-90 minutes and not have any setback."
With the Spurs, recently facing difficulties, the manager said: "It’s so cold now. (Laughs) We are so strong that we don’t need anything, we can sleep in difficult circumstances, if you know what I mean. We don’t need to be in a very comfortable place. We rest when we can, which is not a lot. I was already with someone from BT and I thank him already to choose the game at 12.30, I can thank you also to choose the Sunday at Aston Villa before Leipzig. We rest when we can, the way we can and we go to every match ready for everything. Thats the spirit we want to keep. It was really hard for the boys to be in this position, I remember when I arrived, my first conversation with them was don’t look at the table. Forget you’re 12 points behind fourth, don’t think of any targets, top six or we just want to go match after match and see where this can take us. Well after three months we went from closer to the relegation positions, which obviously was never a problem. But we went from there to be one point behind the top four. Amazing effort by everyone. So now that we’re in this position, we earned the right to fight for it. It’s difficult. In this moment, probably lots of people think impossible. OK but we’re going to fight. Looking at this match, the only thing that matters now, 'lets go'."

Speaking on whether he's proud about being third in the table if it started when he joined Spurs, Mourinho said:

"I am but that’s not about me. Not about me. If it was about me, I would even choose let’s move quickly to July 1 and start the pre-season with my players, without injuries, going to Premier League day one with the same points as everybody else. That’s not about me, it’s about us, that’s the club. We have to face that, again I repeat the boys did fantastic to put themselves back in the positions where we belong, these positions fighting for the top four. The situation is difficult. I think nobody else in the Premier League for sure, but even in European football is in such a difficult situation as we are in terms of injuries in specific positions. Again we go." When asked whether it will be special for him to go back to Stamford Bridge, the former Chelsea boss told the reporters: "No, not special, one more game. Because I’m a professional, as I’ve said every time I played my previous clubs, I’ll belong 200 per cent to my club. That’s it. The only different thing will be at the end of the game I can walk from the stadium to my house but even that I won’t take an advantage of because I’ll go back from the stadium with my players. I won’t use that advantage." Speaking on reaching the Premier League top four without Tottenham two injured strikers Harry Kane and Son Heung-min, Mourinho said: "Sonny and Harry, they score the majority of goals that Tottenham score. This season was so negatively special that we’ll be without them both at the same time for a lot of matches. So yes, not for me, my achievement, but collectively for this group of boys if we manage to finish fourth without Harry and Sonny it would be something incredible, incredible achievement for the boys. So we have to give everything we have."
Source: Football London

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