Pulis - Spurs one of the best teams in Europe

Tony Pulis was full of praise for Tottenham and all our opposing managers seem to be. They seem to rate us higher than some of our own fans do. And talking of fans wasn't it great to hear our away support again who the commentator mentioned.

"Tottenham are an absolutely fantastic team. They're one of the best teams in Europe, never mind England. 
"It's wonderful that you can watch teams like that, manage against them as well as watching them, their array of talent and the players they've got. That's because we're in the Premier League and I don't think anyone can take the Premier League for granted. 
"We're outside the top six or seven in this country and it's a wonderful league to be in. If you take your eye off the ball and think you're better than what you are then you start to become complacent and the bottom drops out. 
"There's a lot of clubs in the Championship who have done that and this club has to keep its feet firmly on the ground and try to improve every window. 
"We're very, very pleased with the point because they are a really top team. The quality they've got they can in the last minute or injury time because of the pace and quality they've got. We showed real resilience. 
"If you look at it as a whole, first half we've got Ben (Foster) to thank. I thought we still looked as though half a dozen of the players were away on international duty. 
"We never got up to the ball, we allowed Tottenham to play. They changed it as well, they were very clever in the way they did it, they stretched us and then got (Christian) Eriksen and Alli in the little pockets, so that caused us a few more problems. 
"We were getting caught in midfield, we were not marking people. We were filling spaces and they were playing outside the spaces we were filling. 
"So what we needed to do was sort that out and we got that done. We were much better and we got closer to them. Second half was more of an even contest."

It doesn't happen enough that a manager explains the little intricacies of a game and outline why clubs like Newcastle United and Aston Villa have ended up in the second tier of football. You look at Villa now and they are struggling, it will be harder to get up next season than this one.

The same applies to the top six really, look at Manchester United. They had probably the best manager the Premier League has seen, taking a mid-table club that won nothing and turning them into the countries top side while sending the commercial side through the roof. Once he departs they have struggled to finish in Europe, let alone the top four, despite spending fortunes.

If the focus isn't there, it falls apart. The is a mental difference between a top side and a nearly side, fortunately we are learning the mental difference and the players are improving as a result.