Toby Alderweireld: Tottenham Must Put Pressure on Leicester

A win will close an eight point gap to five points, giving Tottenham four more games left to overtake Leicester and snatch the Premier League title from Claudio Ranieri’s side.

It’s now or never for Tottenham to close the gap on Leicester City once again. The last time Spurs were in this exact situation where the Foxes weren’t able to win and drew against West Bromwich Albion, Mauricio Pochettino’s side failed to capitalize after losing to West Ham United on March 2nd.

For as much pressure as Leicester has when it comes to winning the Premier League title for the first time in their club’s history, and their first-ever first division championship after being runners-up during the 1928-29 season, Tottenham are in the same boat as well.

Spurs cannot lose — obviously — but they can’t afford to record another draw.

Doing so would no doubt give Leicester City the title as early as April 24th against Swansea City at the King Power Stadium. Or on May 1st at Old Trafford against Manchester United.

Therefore, one Tottenham player who is hoping to gather his teammates together to make that one final push — more so since Leicester drew against West Ham today — is none other than Toby Alderweireld (who seems to be making the rounds with the media lately).

LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 05: Toby Alderweireld of Tottenham Hotspur celebrates scoring his team’s first goal during the Barclays Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal at White Hart Lane on March 5, 2016 in London, England. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images) /

“Leicester are doing very well and I think our season is going very well too, we’ve got a young and talented group,” Alderweireld told Sky Sports News HQ.

“Perhaps it’s hard to get a good result every week but we’re second in the league and that’s fantastic because the Premier League is a very difficult league.”

“It is very difficult to be consistent every week and we have been so we’re in the top two but we’re not satisfied with that, we want to be at the top.”

“We need to put pressure on Leicester; we have big games coming up and we have to be very good as a team.”

It goes without saying that Tottenham can ill-afford to suffer anymore slip-ups from now until the end of the season. So basically, Spurs must win five consecutive games and Leicester has to collapse and lose two games.

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Two scenarios that are highly unlikely given that Leicester have only lost three times. The last one dating back on February 14 which is already two months ago.

But even though the Foxes are almost guaranteed to finish the season as Premier League champions, the 27-year-old isn’t ready to give up yet.

“As a team we’ve shown a lot of mental strength,” Toby Alderweireld continued. “Every game is a big game and we want to achieve a Champions League spot.”

“It’s a long time since Spurs have been in the Champions League so we’ve got to focus on doing that and if we can catch Leicester then we will be very happy.”

“We’ve just got to focus on our own game, we can’t control Leicester and we can’t control the other teams, only ourselves.”

“There is pressure in every Premier League game and we have to get the three points regardless of what Leicester do.”

Next: Stoke's Mark Hughes: Tottenham are Running Out of Games

Now winning five consecutive games isn’t impossible for Tottenham seeing as how they won six straight after falling to Leicester on January 13. Then again, the hardest opponent that Spurs faced in their winning streak was Manchester City.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side can’t expect another easy pass with five games remaining with big games against Stoke and Chelsea. Not to mention a relegation threatened Newcastle United side who — depending on their other results — might have plenty to fight for and won’t make things easy.

At the end of the day, it’s a win at all cost mentality for Tottenham.