Mauricio Pochettino believes his young Tottenham squad deserves more praise as they go into the Christmas period in fourth place – and he says a title bid is not out of the question.

Spurs moved into the Champions League spots at the weekend, taking advantage of Norwich’s surprise victory away at Manchester United.

And, as the Lilywhites prepare for their own home game against Norwich on Boxing Day, Pochettino feels his players merit more credit.

“Sometimes I think people don’t realise the effort that we make and how hard our players work because we are the youngest squad in the Premier League,” said the head coach.

“Sometimes they deserve more praise for the position we are in – and not only because we are fourth today but [because of] the way we try to play. Maybe the players, the team, deserve more praise than we’ve had so far.”

Asked what Spurs’ target is this campaign, Pochettino said: “I need to repeat the same as when we started the season. Our aim is to be as [high] up in the table as possible at the end of the season but we don’t want to set a limit, only try to win every game.

“Today is good because we are fourth but the important thing is at the end of the season if we’re in the same position, or higher.”

Tottenham are nine points behind leaders Leicester City but Pochettino says a title challenge remains a possibility.

“In football all is possible,” he said. “The most important thing is to believe that you can win every game. I think we’re very young, we have a strong squad, we believe in ourselves and we’ll keep working hard and try to win every game.

“We’re in a very tough league - for me the Premier League is the most difficult league in the world - so it’s always important to be focused in every game and every single training session, but in football all can happen if you believe.

“The last 10 games are very important. It’s about how you arrive at the last 10 games to attack different objectives or goals, or achieve important things.”

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