Dier after positive reaction at Stoke

Eric Dier is determined not to allow ‘a bad week’ to cloud a positive start to the season.

We suffered our third loss of the Premier League campaign as Leicester City ran out 2-0 winners at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, but our second in a week after going 12 without a defeat following a heart-breaking late loss against Liverpool in midweek.

Jamie Vardy’s penalty on the stroke of half-time and Toby Alderweireld’s own goal on the hour sealed our fate on Sunday. We’ll soon step out again with the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup at Stoke on Wednesday (5.30pm), quickly followed by Wolves, Fulham and Leeds over the festive period.

“We can’t let this affect us too much,” said Eric, who has started 13 of our 14 games so far in the Premier League. “It’s been a good start to the season, just disappointing to not bounce back after Liverpool in the right way, that’s disappointing, and to lose two in a row is not the right reaction.

“We started badly. I don’t think they had too many clear chances, but we started badly, slowly, they were the better side. I think we were better in the last 15 minutes of the first half, but then we conceded the penalty.

“We reacted better in the second half but didn’t create many chances and conceded an unfortunate goal that made it even more difficult.

“We have to bounce back at Stoke. We’ve two days to prepare and our energy has to turn towards that game now. It’s a great chance for us to get into a semi-final, so we have to be ready for that, and if we want to be competitive this season, we have to be able to bounce back quickly from bad results.”