Mauricio Pochettino hailed the character of his Tottenham team after they recovered from 1-0 down to beat Southampton 4-1 at St Mary’s last night. Spurs conceded to Virgil van Dijk’s header after just 70 seconds before going on to dominate the game and keep up the pressure on fourth placed Arsenal.

This was Spurs’ third straight league win and Pochettino was delighted with the hard work that went into it.

“It is difficult to get a positive result here, to take three points at St Mary’s,” Pochettino said afterwards. “So I think our performance was good, and I am very pleased, not only because we played well, but because the character we showed after going 1-0 down in the first action. It was difficult for us to settle into the game, in the first 15 minutes we were struggling to manage and to handle the game.

“But after we scored, and made it 1-1, we started to show character and personality. We were better than Southampton. And in the second half we were much, much, much better. And in the end we fully deserved the result.”

Pochettino saw Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United win over the last two days so was delighted that his Spurs side could keep the pressure on their title rivals. Spurs are fifth, one point behind Arsenal, but seem to have found their top form again.

“After yesterday, all the big sides , that were above us, they all won their games,” Pochettino said. “So it was important for us to get three points, to keep our position on the table, and always possibility to move up. It’s true the Premier League is very tough now, and all the big clubs, the sides are fighting at the top. It is a completely different Premier League from last year.”

Southampton manager Claude Puel said it was “difficult to accept” Mike Dean’s decision to send off Nathan Redmond for bringing down Dele Alli early in the second half, a decision which he said changed the game.

“Of course it’s difficult,” he said. “I didn’t see the action but it seems from the bench it was two players fighting for the ball and I think this red card changed the philosophy of the game. It is difficult to accept this decision.”

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Puel was frustrated because he said that Southampton had started well in the first 20 minutes before the game turned against them in the second half. “The scenario is bad for us because it’s a disappointment,” he said. “Because we were on the good spirit, and with good intention and good quality we could see this at the start to the game. In this moment we could not think of the final result. This is difficult to accept.”

Spurs defender Jan Vertonghen is facing possible retrospective punishment after he appeared to grab Jay Rodriguez’s face in the first half, an incident not seen by Mike Dean. But he will miss Spurs’ trip to Watford on New Years Day anway after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in the second half here.