Jan Vertonghen: Tottenham are 'stronger' this season and can challenge for the Premier League title

Jan Kruger/Getty Images
Giuseppe Muro15 August 2016

Jan Vertonghen is convinced Tottenham have learned from their disappointing end to last season.

Spurs were satisfied with a point against Everton on Saturday but the 1-1 draw was ultimately a frustrating start for a team that Vertonghen believes are stronger than last term.

Mauricio Pochettino insists Tottenham have drawn a line under last season when two points from their final four games meant they went from potential champions to finishing third - a 5-1 defeat at Newcastle on the final day meant they were pipped to third by rivals Arsenal.

At Goodison Park, Spurs were sluggish in the first half and fell behind early on.

It was only when Pochettino abandoned the idea of two holding midfielders they played like the side that pushed Leicester so close for much of last season.

The suspended Mousa Dembele was missed badly and the combination of Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama did not offer enough variety.

Dier was replaced with Vincent Janssen in the 55th minute and Tottenham then dominated, equalising through Erik Lamela.

Although Spurs took too long to get going on Saturday, Vertonghen is optimistic about the campaign as his side look to establish title aspirations.

“We learned a lot from last season,” said the defender. “We are physically stronger and everyone is a year older.

"We were a young team so that is good for us. We have made two good signings [Wanyama and Janssen] to help the team.

“We are stronger than last season so I think we can [challenge again this time]. The big teams have made some great signings, changed managers and look very good. It will be a very interesting Premier League this year.”

Harry Kane was quiet against Everton but insists he is over Tottenham’s end of-season slump and England’s troubled Euro 2016 campaign.

”You have to put stuff like that behind you,” said the 23-year-old striker. “It was not the way we wanted it to go with England but that is football. It is an experience I have got to learn from.

“It was a disappointing end to what was a great season [for Spurs] last season. As players we know what we did wrong and what we have got to work on this year.

"Hopefully, we can do that. We are a team who have stuck together. We have been through it together and learned from that experience together.

“We want to be better and improve. There are a lot of clubs who have bought a lot of players and felt like they needed to strengthen their squad.

"But we have brought in a couple of really good signings who are going to make a difference this year.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in