Tottenham Manager, Pochettino, Keeping Tabs on Leicester
Leicester City’s game against West Ham United will have one particular person watching from afar and that is Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino.
It should come as no surprise that Mauricio Pochettino will be watching Leicester City’s match against West Ham United tomorrow (April 17, 2016) prior to Tottenham’s Monday night game against Stoke City.
With the Foxes starting five consecutive games ahead of Spurs, starting on April 10th in both club’s title run-in, Tottenham obviously have to sit back and see how Claudio Ranieri’s side will do and how they set the tone before they can play.
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That’s not to say that the Argentine manager is hoping that Leicester loses though.
Since both Mauricio Pochettino and Harry Kane were rooting for Southampton to pull off an upset on April 3rd before the Saints lost 1-0. And after the Foxes produced a 2-0 win over Sunderland, the league leaders have now won five consecutive games.
So maybe it’s just best to watch the game and see what happens.
“It is important to be calm and have a clear idea what you need to do,” Mauricio Pochettino said (quotes via Eurosport).
“We cannot affect what is going to happen on Sunday,”
“I will watch. It is not difficult. I am not a crazy man. It is a healthy competition between teams that want to win and achieve big things and it is good in football.”
“It is true the opponent who plays Leicester, I push a little bit more for the opponent.”
It’s difficult to envision Tottenham supporters suddenly becoming West Ham fans, but if they want Leicester to lose, the Hammers must win.
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Because since the New Year, Leicester City has only lost once in the Premier League which was against Arsenal on February 14. If you include the Foxes’ FA Cup loss to Tottenham on January 20, then that’s only two losses.
On the other hand, Leicester have picked up 10 wins and three draws.
In a nutshell, Leicester City has to suffer a monumental collapse plus Spurs must win five straight games in order for Tottenham to claim the league title.
And at the moment, it’s difficult to imagine both scenarios happening, let alone one.
The only hope that Spurs realistically have is to wait until April ends and the month of May begins. Because closing out the season, Leicester City will now have three straight games against challenging opponents: Manchester United (away), Everton (home) and Chelsea (away).
Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge are difficult places to play in. As for Everton, Roberto Martínez had two perfect game plans to go head-to-head with Mauricio Pochettino in which both the Toffees and Spurs drew twice with only one goal scored for both teams in two games this season.
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For Tottenham, the only difficult games remaining are Stoke City on Monday, Chelsea (away) and Newcastle United (away). A London derby between Spurs and Chelsea is already more than enough to make this a difficult fixture regardless of where both clubs are at in the league table.
As for Newcasstle, although they’re one of three teams, along with Sunderland and Norwich City, battling it out to escape relegation after Aston Villa got relegated following today’s loss. The Magpies have found ways to trouble Tottenham — even if they beat Spurs at White Hart Lane.
So, depending on Leicester’s results against West Ham, there’s pressure for both Claudio Ranieri and Mauricio Pochettino to pick up wins. Whoever flinches first could steer the title race in the other team’s favor only slightly.