Tottenham striker Harry Kane feels his side have to win all five of their remaining games to secure Champions League football next season.
Spurs lost ground in the top four race on a damaging Saturday, as Arsenal beat Manchester United to move into fourth and then they were unable to beat Brentford.
That 0-0 draw in west London came a week after they were beaten 1-0 at home to Brighton and they are now outsiders in a race they looked to be in control of.
Crucially, they still have Arsenal to play at home and that looks like being decisive, with other games against Leicester, Liverpool, Burnley and Norwich.
Kane reckons 15 points could be needed if they are to get back into the top tier of European football.
“The last two especially, to only get one point from those two games is disappointing,” Kane said. “We’re running out of games in terms of dropping points.
Frustrating one. No easy games at this stage of the season but we’ve just got to keep pushing for the final 5 games. Great to see @ChrisEriksen8 out there. pic.twitter.com/5Soc55ed4R— Harry Kane (@HKane) April 23, 2022
“There are five games left and we feel like we are pretty much going to have to win all of them to get that spot. We are more than capable of doing that, we believe in that and that is what we’ll try and do.
“If we win the last five games we will be in the Champions League so that is how we’ve got to look at it. We know those five games will be difficult, we go to Liverpool away as well which will be very tough.
“As we’ve seen this season we have dropped points against teams where we were probably expected to win and so have the others around us.
“It is by all means not done yet. We have to stay focused and keep working hard. We have a little gap now to prepare and work and hopefully we can put in a good performance against Leicester.”
Five games to go. pic.twitter.com/yAfxXYCFrH— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) April 24, 2022
Spurs have done well to be in the race given the mess Antonio Conte inherited from Nuno Espirito Santo, but they looked to have a firm grip on a top-four spot until their past two results.
The England captain, who has gone five games without a goal, said: “I think whoever ends up in the Champions League deserves to be in the Champions League. That is the bottom line.
“It has been a long season and we’ve definitely had ups and downs this season. I think we’ve done great to put ourselves in this position we’re in now but it is about who can finish it off.
“That is the most important thing in football. Hopefully it is us, we will work as hard as we can to make sure it is us and get that Champions League spot.”
