Mauricio Pochettino has described the reaction to the end of
Tottenham's fleeting title challenge as "weird" and says the club's critics are "living in a different reality".
The Spurs manager has admitted it will be impossible to win the league title after consecutive defeats to Burnley and Chelsea left them nine points adrift of Liverpool, and looking nervously over their shoulders at the chasing pack, but he believes they deserve credit for their position in the table.
Arsenal can close the gap to their north London rivals to a single point with a win at Wembley on Saturday and Pochettino claimed every Spurs would have signed up for that situation at the start of the season.
"The feeling is a little bit weird," he said. "Everyone before the start of the season [would] sign up to be in the position that we’re in today and you’re asking me, ‘It’s only four points to Arsenal, or Manchester United and Chelsea are below us’.
"I think we’re living in different realities because, with all the circumstances, Tottenham deserve big praise to be in the position that we’re in at this moment of the season.
"Of course we’re disappointed in the last two results but we need to keep going and trust in our team. It’s going to be tough on Saturday but we believe we can deliver a good job.
"[Winning the title] was difficult after the Burnley defeat and after Chelsea it’s nearly impossible. Of course we want to dream in football. While mathematically it can be possible of course you can dream but to be honest it’s not a possibility."
On Thursday, Pochettino formally accepted an FA charge of improper conduct for furiously confronting referee Mike Dean following the 2-1 defeat at Burnley last Saturday.
He is likely to escape punishment before the Arsenal game but he could be banned from the touchline on his return to Southampton on Saturday week – a punishment he believes would be unfair.
"I accepted [the charge] yes, I signed my name," Pochettino said. "But a ban, why? I don't believe that it's going to happen. I don't think that's going to be fair.
"For what? It was a conversation, no? Maybe it was close but it was a conversation. I don't believe it's fair. But I'm going to accept if they ban me and I can't be in the dugout against Southampton. I am going to accept. It's different if it's fair or not. I don't believe it is but I'm going to trust the FA and accept what they say."
Harry Kane, meanwhile, escaped retrospective action from the FA for leaning his head into Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta in Tottenham's 2-0 reverse at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.
The incident was seen by the match officials, who decided against taking action, and Pochettino described Kane's behaviour as "fantastic".
"He was very professional in the action. I wasn’t worried because I knew what happened was going to happen.
"He is a player that cares about the club, the team and the result and it is normal to behave like this. The reaction is fantastic from my point of view because it is a player that cares about what has happened. It should be strange or different if he didn’t show that character or show the message that he cares about the result, he cares about the situation, he cares about the club. That is the most important thing in my point of view."
Kane's return from a seven-match absence with ankle ligament damage has been met with two defeats but Pochettino laughed off suggestions the England captain had disrupted the balance of his team.
"It makes me laugh, it is unbelievable, but that is the era we are living in," he said. "Harry is one of the best strikers, players in the world. For different circumstances we didn't win but Harry is one of the best players, not only here in Tottenham, in England, in Europe and the world and that is no doubt and there is no debate."
Meanwhile, Pochettino has revealed he was "so close" to signing Heung-min Son for Southampton back in 2013 but says the South Korea chose to move to Bayer Leverkusen from Hamburg on the advice of his family
