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sammyspurs

Andre Villas-Boas feels Tottenham must secure a top-four finish if they are to consider their season to have been a success.
Spurs have spent much of the 2012/13 campaign in and around the UEFA Champions League places, but have work to do if they are to get over that particular line.
With North London rivals Woolwich breathing down their neck, and with Merseyside duo Everton and Liverpool still in the hunt, Villas-Boas knows his side have little margin for error.
"Our ultimate objective is Champions League qualification. If we don't achieve it we have to consider what has been achieved this season as steps forward."
Andre Villas-Boas
He hopes past disappointments will not come back to haunt Tottenham and concedes that if they were to suffer a late drop down the standings, it would be difficult to argue that he has taken things forward.
"The circumstances, players, leaders, training are different. So at this moment, it has nothing to do with past experiences.
"Obviously it can happen. We have to reflect on it like on the late goals we suffered this season. The more you work on it the more you will get out of it. It has happened before, but it doesn't mean it will happen again.
"Our ultimate objective is Champions League qualification. If we don't achieve it we have to consider what has been achieved this season as steps forward, which are positive for the club and the team going forward, bearing in the mind the players the team lost.
"But it's not up to me to judge. If you want to move forward, you move forward by qualifying for the Champions League."

Big words, and today will be a real marker of how well he can stop the blip. I still dont think that missing out should be used too harshly against AVB should it come to that.

Transitional season still..COYS
 
Andre Villas-Boas felt the players underlined their winning mentality in Saturday’s 2-1 victory at Swansea.
The performance showed different characteristics of the team.

The foundations for the win were laid in the first half with goals from Jan Vertonghen and Gareth Bale.

Swansea hit back in the 70th minute and turned up the heat at the Liberty Stadium, but we held firm and restricted them to just one more chance of note, in the final minute. If anything, we looked more likely to score on the break.

It was the ninth win on our travels in the Premier League and we jumped up to third after Chelsea’s 2-1 loss at Southampton.

“We wanted to get back to winning ways after the two defeats and to do it in Swansea is a massive achievement for everyone,” said Andre.

“We started very strongly, showed our ambition and belief and then tried hard to score the third goal to put us completely safe but we couldn’t and then we had to fight hard in the last 10 minutes.

“The result proves the winning mentality this team has. It’s never easy to hold on against a team that plays so well, knows how to hold the ball and creates so many attacking options.

“Sometimes when the opponents take over in motivation and enthusiasm because they have scored, you have to be tactically responsible and the boys were unbelievable. Their knowledge of the game was immense and they were able to hold on for a great result.”

I didnt see the game, was at work, but the comments here give a different impression to those in the match thread. The BBC also called it an impressive win.

Can anyone say if AVB is talking it up, or were we in real danger of throwing away the lead, as the match thread suggests?
 
It's all relative really... In the past I would have made them favourites at 2-1 down, lets not forget they are a good team. Yesterday however, I was nervous but we have held on in similar positions enough times this season that I would have been surprised if we had crumbled.

Liverpool was a couple of individual (?) errors, Inter Milan - we weren't the first aren't going to be the last to make a mess of taking a comfortable lead into a second leg and Fulham was just a flat performance really.

I get the feeling that we are stronger mentally than we have been for a long time and yesterday, alongside the Woolwich game was a good example of when I knew that we could throw a lead away, but didn't think we would.
 
Headline in no way relates to quotes Shock Horror

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas admits Champions League qualification is more important than winning the Europa League this season.

http://www.skybet.com/go/event/14006739/bet?sels=68831743|5/2&aff_id=701&dcmp_f365_betlink

Andre Villas-Boas: Wants trophy and top-four finish



Spurs climbed to third in the Barclays Premier League table with Saturday's 2-1 win at Swansea, where they were once again inspired by Gareth Bale.

The victory, combined with Chelsea's defeat at Southampton, leaves the north London club well-placed to secure a top-four finish, although they are due to face a vital run of league meetings against Chelsea, Everton and Manchester City next month.

Tottenham are also challenging on the European front, and face Basle on Thursday in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final.
Villas-Boas insists he and his players will be fully focused when the Swiss side arrive at White Hart Lane.

He said: "We dream of winning trophies so our focus on the Europa League won't shift.
"We understand that we have to keep the team fresh and we are able to rotate as we have top-quality players that allow us to do so.
"Now we are in the Europa League quarter-finals we can only dream of winning the trophy.
"It has the same importance as every game we play, although I understand that it is always the league position that determines the success of the season."

Despite their strong position, Villas-Boas knows the job of securing a place in European football's premier competition is not done yet.
But he does not expect his side to struggle with the pressure of fending off the chasing pack.

"You always get comfortable when you are further ahead from the pack but the other teams are so near," he said.
"It is not the first time that the other teams have been so near to us and it shifts every week.
"The fact that we are going to be third this week doesn't put more or less doubt on ourselves or make us over-confident. We have to continue to do our job."

He added: "It will depend probably on the fixtures against the teams who have the same objectives as us.
"It may depend on what happens between Chelsea and Manchester United in the FA Cup as it could mean our game against them is postponed for later.
"But we have Everton, Manchester City and Chelsea to come, if we can gather points in those games it could be decisive in terms of our final place in the league."
 
On tonight:

"Obviously they have recent European experience that we don't have," Villas-Boas said of a side who have beaten Manchester United and Bayern Munich.
"They have got tremendous results in the past year with Man United and teams like Bayern - teams they have surprised. They are extremely successful and one of the best teams in the country," Villas-Boas said.
While concerned by the Swiss side's European experience, Villas-Boas is confident he possesses the better squad.
"I'm sure that the key to the game will be both teams' motivations and the quality of the individuals," he said.
"We have to admit that we have superior players but, on the other hand, the experience Basel have and the fact they have played in the Champions League and are regular trophy winners makes them also one of the favourites."
 
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