Mauricio Pochettino happy with Tottenham display despite missing chance to close gap on Liverpool

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Mauricio Pochettino declared he was happy with Tottenham Hotspur’s performance in their draw with West Ham, despite his side almost losing a game they dominated.

Spurs were by far the better team and took 31 shots on goal compared to West Ham’s three, but needed a late long-range strike from Son Heung-min to cancel out Pedro Obiang’s earlier wonder goal.

The result leaves Tottenham four points behind fourth-placed Liverpool, but Pochettino declared he was happy with the performance, even drawing comparisons with his side’s recent 5-2 victory over Southampton.

“I am happy with the performance and the effort, especially considering we were playing our second game in three days,” he said. “I am pleased with all of the players and sometimes in football you just need some luck.

“It was similar to our game against Southampton except one ended 5-2 and one ended 1-1. This was the type of game where you give everything to win and you create and dominate, but sometimes it is just impossible to score.

“Sometimes in football you have one shot and you score — today we had 31 and we only scored one goal which was from distance. This is football. We need to accept the frustration and feel disappointed, but equally we need to feel happy with a point because we conceded a goal from the very first shot that they had.”

Pochettino also refused to criticise the performance of referee Mike Dean, on a day when Arsene Wenger was left facing further Football Association disciplinary action after describing disputed refereeing decisions in draws against West Brom and Chelsea as “concerning coincidences”.

Spurs appeared to have a strong penalty appeal turned down by Dean when Pablo Zabaleta pulled Harry Kane’s arm in the box, but Pochettino said the referees deserved some slack over the busy festive period.

“I didn’t see, but I trust the referees and sometimes it’s for you and sometimes it’s against,” Pochettino said.

“I’m not going to say nasty things as it’s a difficult job for them. I think we need to be focused on helping our team to win and score goals rather than be focused on the decision of the referee.

“We need to allow them to make the decisions.”