Jose Mourinho has insisted that his Tottenham Hotspur side are better than being in the Europa League, but he accepts that is the only European competition they could get to play in next season.
Tottenham are out of the Champions League conversation, but a good finish to the season is likely to earn them a place in the Europa League next season.
If the Premier League started on the day Mourinho took charge of Spurs, the club would have been fourth in the league table and the Tottenham boss believes it is a testament to the quality of his squad.
He insisted that they could have been in a much better state had he not missed key players during vital points of the season due to injuries, but he accepts their new reality.
The Spurs boss stressed that while he is desperate to make sure Tottenham play in the Europa League next season, he believes his team are a level above and are better than just playing in the second-tier European competition.
The Tottenham manager said in a press conference: “I think Spurs would be even better than that [fourth place] without all the problems that we had. I think no other team had even similar problems to that.
“As I was saying, in the most difficult moment of the season I was just speaking about surviving, surviving was to leave us in a position where we could eventually fight for that.
“The fact that we're fourth since my arrival, without [Hugo] Lloris, Harry Kane, [Moussa] Sissoko, [Heung-Min] Son, without almost everybody, is a good reflection of the potential that we have, the work we're all doing.
“That's why I say the minimum we deserve is to finish in a position to keep us in European football, a competition that we don't deserve.
"It's not our level, we're better than that, but still European competition.
“Football is not about what you deserve, it's about what you effectively get.
"So we can't say we deserve it and then don't get points in these two matches.
"So we need to win matches now.”
Tottenham have now won two games on the bounce after beating Arsenal at home and Newcastle United away, and they could make it three wins on the spin against Leicester City at home on Sunday.
