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What pleased you most about that win?
Pretty much all of it. I just really liked the way we handled it tonight. It's a difficult venue, they are a very well drilled team defensively and going into it I knew it wasn't going to be an open game and we weren't going to get bags of chances.
I really liked the way the boys handled it, they were patient and consistently tried to find the gaps in the ways we spoke about and real composure once we got ahead to control the game.
Obviously there was a bit of drama at the end then but even then I thought the lads handled it really well today. It was a different challenge for us tonight and I really liked the way we went about it.
Does Brennan Johnson coming off the bench and getting an assist minutes after coming on show exactly why you wanted to bring him to the club in the summer?
Yeah Brennan was great. He's had to be patient as he's had a couple of setbacks obviously so we haven't really seen him in any consistent game time or training time but the last couple of weeks he's worked hard at training.
I thought all the subs who came on... I thought Pierre helped us get control of midfield, I thought Emerson at left-back was outstanding. Those kind of things are helping us at the moment, the guys coming on and helping us see out games.
You said on TV a few minutes ago 'let the fans' dream' as they've had a hard time of it in recent years. Any chance of it lasting another six months?
Dreams last as long as they do until someone wakes you up. We'll just see.
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What does it do for the belief in the players when they're top of the league and getting these results?
Top of the table is great and the results are great but it's more in the manner we're doing it. Pretty much from the first game we've had all sorts of different challenges we've had to overcome. Every time there has been a real focus and clear-headedness about the group collectively to deal with that. That has been a really pleasing thing and because they're getting rewards from that then that gives us opportunity to accelerate the growth of giving them more tools out there to help them for whatever we need to overcome.
Like I said, I thought tonight was going to be a real difficult game for us coming here...Palace's result last week, it's a tight ground, they'd only conceded three goals in the four games so far and how were the lads going to cope with the fact we weren't going to create as many chances as we had been. I really liked the way we worked through that as a group.
How do you keep the players' feet on the ground?
I don't sense anyone sort of floating about the place. There's no reason for them to feel that way because when they come in each day they see the same thing. They see an environment where they know training is going to be hard, training is going to be competitive and it doesn't allow you to think about anything other than they have to be at their best every day to make sure they keep pushing themselves, pushing each other to get to where we want to.
I think if you think about that stuff you've probably have the wrong kind of people in your building. I don't sense that with this group. This group is very, very determined to keep working hard, keep improving and they demand that of me, the coaching staff and all the staff. I see no reason why that won't continue.
Enjoy being top, shut it out?
I think I said in the press conference I don't think you would see me any different. I enjoy every day of it and I want the players to enjoy every day of it. Not because we're top-of-the-table, but because we're living the dream, mate.
We're playing for a fantastic football club, we get to do what we love and the rest of it is about honouring that responsibility that has been bestowed on us. For me what is important is we are giving our supporters some joy, some belief and some hope. That is what football clubs are there for. We need to keep feeding into that.
How pleased are you with the connection with fans?
I think connection has been there from the start to be fair. The supporters have got right behind this group of players from the first game and I think again the results are great, we're in a great spot in terms of the table, but I think they like what they see. They appreciate the players that are representing their football club are giving everything for it.
They are working awfully hard and the supporters see the end product, but they are working hard every day. It is not just about our football, it is about our attitude, about our intent as a group and a group of players. I think that is what the fans want to see in their Tottenham team; a group of players who are absolutely committed to something and represent all the values that they want in their football club. And then the rest is what makes it special, the fact that we are winning as well obviously because the results count for everything and we're in a great spot in terms of the table.
How impressed are you with way the players are finding solutions on the pitch, they were all animated in tunnel at half-time?
Well, there is nothing I can do. I certainly can't run on there and help them. It is about the players. I have always felt that. Matchdays is about the players. What we try to do on a daily basis is give them the tools to find the solutions. I've used the analogy before that we prep them for their exam at the weekend, but we don't know what the questions are going to be. They've got to work them out themselves.
In an exam you are not asking anybody for help. You have to work it out yourself and hopefully what we've given them is the tools to say, 'okay we know how to handle this, we'll work our way because we've spoken about it or worked on it,' and that's the ideal because the game moves along. The players are taking the responsibility and they don't need to look to me or the bench to see how we overcome this. Hopefully we've equipped them with that during the week.
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