Carragher names ‘standout’ team he says can challenge Chelsea

Jamie Carragher has labelled Tottenham a team of winners and believes they have all the ingredients in place to challenge for the Premier League title.

Carragher, writing in his weekly Daily Mail column, has nothing but praise for Mauricio Pochettino’s side, saying they have assembled a side capable of matching the best in the Premier League.

In assessing their Premier League title chances, Carragher wrote:

‘Do you think they can win it? Or do you see this being another one of those seasons when Tottenham promise much but fail to deliver, and show why Sir Alex Ferguson once gave a team talk and said: ‘Lads, it’s Tottenham.’

‘There will be plenty of people in the latter category. For all the good football they play — the aggression, the relentless running and the power — and for all their terrific players, there will always be doubters about the men from White Hart Lane.

‘It shouldn’t be that way. When I look at their team, I see Hugo Lloris, a goalkeeper who is as good as anyone in the Premier League. The back four is the finest in the country and Mousa Dembele, the shield in front of them, is one of the best in the business.

‘Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, the creative talents, can be measured favourably against any other partnership, whether it is Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey at Arsenal, Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva or Liverpool’s Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho. Then you have Harry Kane, who has become England’s finest striker.

‘So what leaves us sceptical? Is it that they doubt themselves when the pressure intensifies and something is at stake? Last season was memorable but it finished inexplicably at Newcastle when a 5-1 defeat by their already relegated opponents meant they conceded second spot to Arsenal.

That was a typical Tottenham moment. It was the same in 2012 when the squad Harry Redknapp managed, complete with Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, were blitzed by the same score in an FA Cup semi-final by Chelsea.

‘Twelve months earlier they were swamped 5-0 on aggregate in the Champions League quarter-finals by Real Madrid. When they need a result to really change things, you can tell what will happen.

‘For that reason Arsenal fans coined ‘St Totteringham’s Day’ — the day when Tottenham cannot finish above them in the table —and they have been celebrating it every year since 1995. How they kept the sequence going last year is something Mauricio Pochettino will still regard as inexplicable.

Yet at the end of every season, we always turn the focus on Arsenal and ask what they lack. We will say they need a new striker, a central defender or a midfielder. You can’t say that about this group at Tottenham.

‘All they are missing is a superstar such as Eden Hazard, Alexis Sanchez — or having Gareth Bale still at the club. Then they would be the real deal.

‘They are not, however, far away from becoming just that. Pochettino takes his team to face Manchester City on Saturday evening. A home win would put the two teams level on 45 points but I know which one needs major surgery and which one I’d back for the title. It would be Tottenham every time.’