Defender enjoying run in Rose’s absence

Tottenham defender Ben Davies insists he never contemplated leaving in the January transfer window despite playing second fiddle to Danny Rose.

Rose’s brilliant form meant Davies made only three starts in Spurs’ first 22 Premier League matches but his persistence has been rewarded in recent weeks.

A knee injury to Rose, which will keep the England left-back out for another month at least, has offered Davies the chance of an extended run in the first team.

Davies is expected to start again when Spurs host Everton today and he maintains he has never questioned his future at White Hart Lane.

“I was always sure I was going to be here,” Davies said.

“My contract here is secure and every club needs two players for every position. I didn’t really contemplate leaving. The manager told me I was important to the club and that’s all I saw.

“It’s a new experience and in fairness Danny has been playing some unbelievable football, and you just have to be patient and wait for your chance to come.

“Every day we push each other to be as good as we can be and that can only be good for Tottenham.”

This weekend’s clash against Everton could also be billed as the battle of the league’s top scorers as Harry Kane and Romelu Lukaku, both on 17 goals this season, go head to head.

While Davies, along with the rest of Tottenham’s back-line, will be tasked with keeping Lukaku quiet, his Welsh team-mate and Everton centre-half Ashley Williams will have the job of containing Kane.

“I’ve played with Ash for years now and he is a top, top defender,” Davies said.

“For him, his first job is defending, not playing out of defence or anything else, none of the ‘nonsense’ as he would call it.

“It is going to be a tough game for Harry, but I can see him doing it against any defender in the game, so Ash will be up for a tough day.

“They are both top players and have played against each other that many times, they’ll know what they are up against. Hopefully Harry can come out on top for us.”

Kane is in scintillating form, having hit his second hat-trick in a week against Stoke last weekend.

The 23-year-old has 13 goals in his last 12 games, while Lukaku has scored nine in 10, and Davies added: “Harry is a massive player for us. His mindset is purely scoring goals which you don’t see too much of in the game now.

“You have to be selfish to score goals to be a top striker. You have to want to score goals every time you are on the pitch.

“With Harry he wants to play in every minute of every game to give himself the chance to score the goals. For us as a team it is great to have someone like him.”

Everton are the form team in the division, having won five and drawn two of their last seven games, but Tottenham can hardly afford any slip-ups.

They trail league leaders Chelsea by 10 points while Champions League qualification is far from secured, with Arsenal only three behind in fifth following their loss at Liverpool.

“We have to keep believing. It would be silly not to in football as we saw last season, when we were going for second place and we ended up not getting it,” Davies said.

“Anything can change at the end of the season so we keep believing and if we can narrow the gap on Chelsea, maybe some pressure can build.

“It is down to us to finish as high as we can and win every game from here on in.”