Mauricio's verdict on Southampton

Mauricio Pochettino pinpointed the spirit of the players and praised the strength of Hugo Lloris’ character after our hard-fought 2-1 win against Southampton on Saturday.

Tanguy Ndombele rifled us into the lead on 24 minutes but the game changed on the half-hour when Serge Aurier received his second yellow card and was sent off.

Southampton soon levelled when Hugo was closed down and caught by Danny Ings in the six-yard box as we tried to play out from the back.

Crucially, we got back in front before the break when Harry Kane finished off a lightning counter-attack involving Christian Eriksen and Heung-Min Son. Southampton continued to push, and Hugo produced world-class saves to deny James Ward-Prowse and Maya Yoshida as we held on for an important victory.

Mauricio said: “The spirit – if we need to praise something, it’s the spirit. I’m proud and so happy for my players and for my squad, the staff and the fans. It’s an important victory for us to recover our best feelings.

“We started well and scored but the sending off changed the atmosphere and the emotions. We conceded but it was an unbelievable response from the team, scoring the goal with 10 men and then fighting all together in the second half.

“That’s what we needed. That’s the way to play and with the quality we have, we are going to succeed. We keep going, working together. We have massive belief, so keep working hard, stay calm in our assessment and we have an unbelievable squad, unbelievable players, we are going to be successful, for sure.”

As for Hugo’s response to Southampton’s goal, Mauricio added: “Hugo is so strong. If someone wants to blame someone, blame me. We demand he plays in this way.

“I’ve nothing to say about him. He is one of the best goalkeepers in the world, of that there is no doubt. He showed he was not affected. I’m so happy for the victory for him but that’s football, that can happen. Now we need to build a good run. The fans were fantastic. They know how I feel and how they feel towards us and I want to say thanks for their support, always.”