Livermore confident of staying third

Jake Livermore insists Tottenham remain favourites for third place in the Premier League despite pressure from rivals Arsenal and Chelsea.

Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at home against Manchester United meant that the gap between Spurs and the Gunners was narrowed to just four points.

Meanwhile, Chelsea dismissed manager Andre Villas-Boas and replaced him with former assistant Roberto Di Matteo in an attempt to revive their challenge for the Champions League places.

Livermore, however, remains sure of his side’s ability to secure passage into the showpiece European competition, telling London24: “We’re confident. All we do is worry about our games and if we do our job then third place is ours. If you look at the fourth place, Arsenal’s run-in is hard.”

“And it’s the same with Chelsea – their manager’s just been sacked too. That can work both ways.”

“You see other managers come in and it takes some time for them to settle and get their thoughts across, so time will tell what happens there. It (changing your manager) is no guarantee of success.”

“We’ve got a big week now. We’ve got Stevenage on Wednesday (in the FA Cup replay) and we want to do well in the cup – we’ve got a good draw after that (against Bolton) – and then we’ve got Everton away on Saturday.”

“It’s not going to be easy up there, but hopefully we’ll have Scotty (Parker) and Gareth Bale back, and we’ll look to push on and stick in that third place.”

Spurs had a goal disallowed for a handball against United before a Wayne Rooney header and an Ashley Young double sealed the win for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men.

Livermore acknowledged his frustration at the result, commenting: “It seems like the same old story against them, but I thought the performance was a bit different this time.”

“I thought we were good, on and off the ball. If (Adebayor’s) goal goes in it’s a different story, but we can’t dwell on that. I thought the performance, up until the second and third goals, was good.”

“It was disappointing, especially to concede a minute before half-time when we were the better side in the first half.”

“Why do we never beat them? It’s one of those things that you can’t put your finger on. If you did then maybe you could work on it, when you know you’re playing them every season, but I thought we were unlucky because the lads played well and we worked hard.”

“If we get one result against them maybe the tide will change, and then it will be their turn to look back at us.”