Tottenham vs Swansea Results: Villas-Boas Hails Winning Mentality; Laudrup Unhappy with Penalty Decision

Aug 26, 2013 12:41 AM EDT
Tottenham Roberto Soldado Michel Vorm Ashley Williams Swansea
Tottenham forward Roberto Soldado (R) celebrates after slotting in a penalty past Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm in their English Premier League game, August 25"

 

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas hailed his side's winning mentality after a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Swansea, while Michael Laudrup bemoaned the penalty decision which swung the pendulum in Spurs' favor.

Roberto Soldado again scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot after Andros Townsend went down rather easily inside the box under the challenge of Jonjo Shelvey.

"They won a light penalty in my opinion," Laudrup told Sky Sports. "We were punished by that penalty in the second half. It was the only time they really created something.

"They (Spurs) are a very good team, but they didn't really create a clear effort at goal.

"We had a good chance in either half, but in the end we have to accept it and move on."

Villas-Boas was satisfied with his side's performance, especially with the midfield duo of Paulinho and Etienne Capoue stifling Swansea's creative efforts.

"At the moment, these are excellent signs, signs of a team that is mature and knows what to do to gain the right result," he said.

"You never know what can happen in the future but at the moment we're showing a winning mentality and that's helping us to get results. It's a good start.

"We deserved to win, created lots of chances, were sound defensively and that's why we had so much of the ball against a team that normally dominates other teams.

"Our shape was tremendous, Capoue protecting and Paulinho's workrate was immense. I'm really happy with the performance."

Laudrup was disappointed with the way his side failed to penetrate Spurs' defense, and wants his players to be more adventurous in away games.

"When you play away from home you can't expect to dominate the game," Laudrup said. "But it's important for me to see how we react in the periods when we aren't dominating.

"And we also have to accept that most other teams are stronger than us physically. But we compensate that with the way we play and pass the ball about.

"But we have to push forward a little bit more and make more of the times when we have the ball in the final third."

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