Pochettino welcomes lack of distractions in title push

Mauricio Pochettino feels Tottenham’s elimination from the Europa League could work in the club’s favour as they mount one last Premier League title push.

Tottenham’s campaign in Europe was ended by Borussia Dortmund in the last 16 on Thursday, beaten 5-1 on aggregate.

Pochettino’s men – second in the table – now have just eight Premier League matches remaining in their season as they look to overturn Leicester City’s eight-point lead atop the table and the Argentine boss has welcomed the lack of distractions during the business end of the campaign.

“I think now we are focused on the Premier League and all our energies will go into trying to win games and win the league,” said Pochettino, whose Tottenham host AFC Bournemouth on Sunday.

“It’s true that there are no distractions now, until now we had the Europa League to play, but now we only have the Premier League. We need to realise that our target was to try to reduce the gap to the top four but we are second in the table now, and we have played one tie more than last season in the Europa League.

“It’s true it’s tough. We are the youngest squad in the Premier League and the players need to feel what it means to play for the Premier League, to play to win, play to try to compete in different competitions.

“We need to learn … should learn a lot from this season and now we need to try in the last eight games to try to win as many points as possible.”