Harry Kane has rallied his Tottenham team-mates, calling on them to make the most of the rest of the Premier League season as they aim for the top four.
Spurs slipped to a defeat against Wolves on Saturday, with Adama Traore’s late strike snatching a 1-0 victory for the hosts at Molineux.
It saw Tottenham, in what is set to be their final game under temporary boss Cristian Stellini before Antonio Conte returns from his enforced lay-off, fail to build on the four-point cushion over fifth-place Newcastle United, who lost 2-0 at Manchester City.
Coupled with a shock FA Cup exit to Championship side Sheffield United on Wednesday, Kane acknowledged it has been a tough spell, but the England captain backed his team-mates to turn Spurs’ fortunes around.
“It’s been tough, a really disappointing week,” he said. “All we can do is look forward now. We have 12 or 13 games now to push for that top-four place.
“The games come around quick, and we have to look to the next one. If we had won today, we would’ve been in a good spot with the last third of the season to play.
“[But] there’s still going to be points dropped, and we need to concentrate on ourselves and finish as strong as possible.”
Stellini, meanwhile, has overseen a tepid end to his interim time at the helm, and he knows Spurs must be at their best in order to translate their performances into crucial results.
“It was a good performance. We started well in the game,” Stellini told Sky Sports. “We had chances to score and we could’ve killed the game.
“It was a tough game like we expected but we were ready to challenge, to fight, to play a great game. We missed some chances in the first half and maybe it could’ve been a bit different.”
Of the tussle for Champions League qualification, Stellini added: “It will be a tough race. We are not alone with Newcastle, other teams will arrive. We have to be ready to play these type of games again.
“Maybe we have to have more of the killer instinct, to kill the game when you have the possibility to do [so]. In the first half, it was really under control, and we needed to kill it.”