Mauricio Pochettino believes the fact Son Heung-Min stayed with Tottenham during the international break helped him to produce his devastating display against Chelsea and will continue to enhance his impact.
Spurs agreed to release Son, who played at the World Cup, for the group stage of August’s Asian Games — which South Korea won — on the condition that he missed this month’s international friendlies and the first two group matches of January’s Asian Cup.
Having spent the last fortnight at the team’s north London training ground, the 26-year-old was a constant threat in Saturday’s 3-1 home win over Chelsea and scored a sensational solo goal — his first in the Premier League this season.
“You can see on the pitch that Son’s performance was fantastic and you can see he deserved it, because the summer for him was very difficult,” said Pochettino.
“In the last international break he was here, training hard. It is one of the reasons today that he showed he is fresh. His physical condition is much better and I think it is going to help him for the rest of the season.
“[His goal] was fantastic. Everyone that saw the game was in love with the action. It was a fantastic capacity to make what he made — an outstanding action for a very good player like him.”
Chelsea’s head coach Maurizio Sarri said after the match that Pochettino’s tactics — a 4-3-1-2 system with Dele Alli man-marking Jorginho — had surprised him, but Spurs’ manager was keen to give the credit to his players.
“It’s completely unfair to say, ‘Yes our idea — how we prepared the game, the plan, the tactics — was fantastic,'” he said. “No, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
“When you win it looks like the plan was the best from the manager. For me, it was about the attitude that a lot of times we have missed in many important games.
“To compete in this way, the tactics or the system are not important because the attitude and the win was fantastic. Now the challenge for us is to keep that level of competition, to try and increase and keep it, because we have talent.
“The most important thing is the three points that puts us in a good position in the table. We need to use at some point for the future. We are going to have in a few days a final [against Inter Milan] and then, against Arsenal, with this attitude all is possible.
“We don’t use a fixed formation. If you follow us in all the games we play in the Champions League, cup and Premier League, we don’t talk about formation. We talk about tactics or animation. We talk about how we play in a different way with possession in the opposite half, how we organise the team in a defensive situation when we don’t have the ball.”
There were a number of empty seats at Wembley, despite the attraction of a showdown between the top-six and London rivals, with 55,465 people attending at the 90,000-capacity arena.
“It’s difficult for our fans to come here to Wembley,” said Pochettino. “I understand completely the frustration and disappointment that we’re still not in the new stadium. But I cannot ask for more from our fans.
“I’m so happy with the people who came here and helped us, and I’m going to be happy on Wednesday if 50,000 or 60,000 come, or it’s full.
“Of course I will be more happy if we are capable of being 90,000 at Wembley, helping the team to achieve the victory, but if not it’s nothing to complain about.”