“The season so far?” said Mauricio Pochettino as he considered the question. “It’s strange because my feeling is the worst feeling I’ve had in the five years that I’ve been here. It’s the worst. But it’s the best start ever for the club in the Premier League. It’s strange, no?”

Pep Guardiola admits he was wrong to call Spurs the ‘Harry Kane team’ Read more

At the end of a week in which his side conceded a late equaliser against PSV Eindhoven after a moment of madness from his goalkeeper and captain, Hugo Lloris, the Tottenham manager could not help revealing his frustration. The failure to beat the Dutch champions means that, despite seven victories from nine Premier League matches, Pochettino’s hopes of emulating last season’s run to the last 16 of the Champions League had all but evaporated before the clocks went back.

Before the daunting task of facing Manchester City at Wembley on Monday, it was intriguing to hear the former Argentina defender’s assessment of the campaign.

“I don’t know why, it is difficult to explain,” Pochettino said. “The circumstances, because many things happen; I am disappointed we are still waiting for the new stadium when the expectation was to be there at the beginning of the season. I don’t know, many things happened in the summer, many things that make myself not in my best mood or best humour. I know I always have a good relationship with you but my feeling is not the best feeling. I had better feelings in previous seasons.”

The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email.

Pochettino laughed off suggestions he could replace Julen Lopetegui should the Real Madrid coach be sacked, so the Tottenham chairman, Daniel Levy, will not be feeling threatened just yet. Pochettino’s five-year contract signed in the summer was a firm commitment as Spurs prepared to move into the newly refurbished White Hart Lane, but the delayed opening until the new year coupled with a lack of investment in the summer transfer window has not helped raise the manager’s spirits.

He has overseen Tottenham’s transformation into serial qualifiers for the Champions League with limited resources in comparison with most of their rivals but finds them agonisingly short of truly competing at the top, mainly because of restrictions imposed on him by the stadium costs.

“The circumstance that happened in the last years, I think the club is not focused completely in winning titles or winning games,” Pochettino admitted. “We have a lot of focus and you know very well when you are competing with sides, like we are in Champions League and Premier League, the most important thing is to fight in the same conditions as others.

“But the club needs to be all focused in trying to win titles. Because today we need to fix other problems and different circumstances that happen that don’t help the team or the club to only be focused on winning titles. Sometimes people expect that we should be winning or we must win titles when the circumstances are not ideal. To go further, you know better than us.”

Glenn Hoddle: the genius who Spurs fans love like no other Read more

As he acknowledged, a new stadium is no guarantee of success – especially against the spending power of a team such as City.

“I don’t have the answer how we are going to act when we are going to move there. It is easy to see in the last few years how we act in front of the market, how we act in front of everything and how the other teams were acting. That is the difference. Everything is not perfect but we are in a circumstance and a project that is completely different to another club, at the moment. But maybe when we arrive at the new stadium maybe we will be in the same project, have the same resources as different teams like Liverpool, Man City, United, Chelsea or Arsenal. The way we have been competing in the last few years, the frustration is massive because we have had less in every single aspect.”

Tottenham conceded seven goals against Pep Guardiola’s side last season in their two meetings and will be up against opponents who have spent around £360m more on transfers and three times as much on wages since 2015. No wonder it feels a bit like groundhog day for their manager.