We’ve needed some extra bite upfront, but Jermain Defoe’s pounce on West Ham’s Javier Mascherano was going a ‘bit’ too far! Spurs manager Martin Jol has played it down though.<\/p>\n
The Dutchman said: “He was nibbling his arm – there will be no mark. Ask Mascherano if he has got a mark.<\/p>\n
“It is part of the game. They kicked him three times from behind in 10 minutes and he wanted to show his frustration in a nice, comical way.”<\/p>\n
Regardless of that incident, it was such an crucial win. Mido’s winner just before half-time was an impressive strike – the way he flicked the ball up and hit home off the post was fantastic stuff!<\/p>\n
We had many more chances to get the second but again we failed to kill off the opposition.<\/p>\n
Martin said: “We should have scored a second goal and finished the game. We didn’t and that made it difficult.<\/p>\n
“In the first half we didn’t play well but we were professional. And I didn’t think we gave away a lot and we deserved to win.<\/p>\n
“It was our third game in a week and not easy. But it was a great performace and the team showed great character.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"