Gylfi Sigurdsson: No need to fear another Manchester mauling

 
PA
Julian Bennetts29 November 2013

Gylfi Sigurdsson insists Tottenham have no need to worry despite facing champions Manchester United on Sunday on the back of their humiliating Premier League defeat at Manchester City.

Manager Andre Villas-Boas has been under intense pressure following their 6-0 demolition at the Etihad Stadium — and last night’s unconvincing 2-0 win over Tromso here in Norway will not have silenced the doubters.

However, Sigurdsson said: “Our target is still to finish in the top four. We are four points off second place so there is no need to worry yet, even though we need to score more goals than we have been.”

And the Iceland international believes some good could come out of the City result if it brings about a defiant reaction against United at White Hart Lane on Sunday.

“We can use that result as a positive thing,” he said. “We just need to get a good reaction from the squad. We need to bounce back and give the club and fans what they deserve.

“The performance on Sunday was not good enough but we got the three points against Tromso and we need another three points on Sunday.

“We need to make sure we do our job and not worry about what message [beating United] would send to the rest of the League. We beat them away last season and drew at home, so if we can continue that it would be a positive thing.”

Sigurdsson believes Tottenham are united and determined to prove that their mauling at City was a one-off.

Manchester United, however, are on an 11-match unbeaten run and Wayne Rooney is in superb form. Sigurdsson, 24, has been impressed by United’s resurgence in recent weeks, claiming that despite the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson they are still the team to beat.

The Tottenham squad watched United’s 5-0 destruction of Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday and when asked if the champions still have the same cache without Ferguson, Sigurdsson said: “I think so.

“They never start the League too strong but during the business part of the season they are always very strong. They have been there and done it before, they have some world-class players and are the team everyone wants to beat. I saw some of their game against Leverkusen. It was 2-0 when I stopped watching it. Some players they have are world-class and we know we need to stop them, like Rooney among others.

“We just have to focus on ourselves and play attacking football.”

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