NEWS : Tottenham captain already giving up on title chase, "just wants to be in top 4"

Loss to Arsenal that continues Spurs' long winless run away to Big Six rivals leaves them ELEVEN points adrift already

“We heard from outside that Tottenham play for the title, blah, blah, blah. The most important thing is to stay consistent in the League.

“We have been in the top four the last two years and we need to carry on, to settle the club in this position and try to get more experience because the team is still young, then reduce the gap with the best.

“Obviously the future for Tottenham will be bright if we keep the same mentality. It’s our ambition, but step by step.

“It’s true that we wanted to do more against Manchester United and Arsenal. Unfortunately we couldn’t do that so now it’s important to have a run of victories because we need to keep our place at the top.”

Despite Mauricio Pochettino’s impressive work at Tottenham, they are missing big statement victories at top rivals and, as a club, they have won just four of their last 86 games away to Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Match stats

3-4-2-1	Arsenal	2	-	0	Tottenham Hotspur	3-5-2
HT 2-0

Arsenal 6 Laurent Koscielny DF 7 Alexis Sánchez 38'41' FW 8 Aaron Ramsey MF 9 Alexandre Lacazette 73' FW 11 Mesut Özil 84' FW 18 Nacho Monreal 73' DF 20 Shkodran Mustafi 36'48' DF 24 Héctor Bellerín MF 29 Granit Xhaka 32' MF 31 Sead Kolasinac MF 33 Petr Cech GK Substitutes 17 Alex Iwobi 84' Sub 34 Francis Coquelin 73' Sub

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Hugo Lloris GK 2 Kieran Trippier MF 5 Jan Vertonghen DF 6 Davinson Sánchez DF 10 Harry Kane 50'75' FW 15 Eric Dier DF 17 Moussa Sissoko MF 19 Mousa Dembélé 62' MF 20 Dele Alli 75' FW 23 Christian Eriksen MF 33 Ben Davies MF Substitutes 7 Son Heung-Min 75' Sub 18 Fernando Llorente 75' Sub 29 Harry Winks 62' Sub

But Lloris insists their home form is more important as he bemoaned bad luck and referee Mike Dean as the reason they lost at Arsenal.Lloris added: “The most important thing is to win at home, to get the points. Away you try to get whatever you can. Obviously we were very disappointed against Man United and Arsenal was a bit similar because in terms of performance it’s difficult to blame the players.

Tottenham's coronation as new kings of north London football will have to wait

“The spirit was good, we were in the fight and able to develop our game with the ball in the floor. But in the final third we need more aggression and movement. It doesn’t belong to one player. It’s three or four offensively.

“But they do so well, it’s difficult. The opponent was once again a great opponent, defensively they were very strong individually. Then it’s about little details. It didn’t go our way, the ref’s decisions. Now we need to carry on.”

MirrorUk