Mauricio Pochettino says he never considered stripping Hugo Lloris of the Tottenham captaincy following the goalkeeper's drink driving charge .

Lloris retained his place and the captain's armband for Spurs' 3-0 win at Manchester United on Monday , despite being detained for seven hours in the early hours of Friday morning.

Spurs have said they will deal with the French World Cup-winner 'internally' and Lloris, 31, has publicly apologised for his actions.

Speaking after the win at Old Trafford, his first as Spurs boss, Pochettino said: "No, I never considered [stripping him of the captaincy]. What happened was such a bad experience for him.

"He feels so sorry. He apologised to everyone, but not only apologised to our fans, us, the club and he shows his regret and apologised to the whole country, because that responsibility is massive. I think it was a good lesson for everyone, a massive lesson.

"He's punishing himself. He feels so sorry and so bad because he knows that he made a big mistake, but in the same way I think he's a man out of character. We are going to, of course, support him but knowing that we cannot justify of course. There's no sense to take some decision like you told me."

Lloris made a vital one-handed save to deny Romelu Lukaku an immediate equaliser after Harry Kane opened the scoring at Old Trafford with a thumping header at the start of the second half, before Luca Moura's clinical double sealed a third consecutive win for Spurs.

"The second half was much better," Pochettino said. "In the first half, Manchester United were better than us. They didn't create too many clear chances but the belief and our belief and the trust in the way we play together was good.

"In the end, the result was fair. Of course the players deserve all the credit and their belief and their faith was fantastic. In a very difficult stadium like Old Trafford against a great team it's not easy to win. Of course our record was so bad in the last four years. After that it was our, or my, fifth year in playing here and to win 3-0 away from home is a fantastic result for us.

"It's so important because it puts us in a very important position in the table. Another negative result today and it's open again [for discussion] – 'Difficult for Tottenham to win away from home against the top six again'."

Lucas, a £25million January signing from Paris Saint-Germain, made it three goals in two matches with a low finish from Christian Eriksen's cross, before he left Chris Smalling in a heap and finished coolly past David de Gea.

"He is going to receive much praise now," Pochettino said of Lucas. "But, for me, I want to say to our chief scout Steve Hitchen and all the people that worked with him, because they advised to sign him.

"When the people sometimes criticise because always it is tough now, I think I need to say well done, because today's performance from Lucas Moura, for the people that advised and feel responsible too, they need to be praised too. That is why I want to congratulate them. There are always people who are working behind and it was a fantastic job because today I think Lucas deserves a lot of credit.

"It's easy to say now it was fantastic the improvement. Of course that is another example that when the player arrives in the middle of the season it's not easy to get them to good performances. It's not easy to explain to you or our fans that we need patience and to wait to get the best from our players, after a pre-season and to have the possibility to show their quality.

"He is showing his quality. I am so happy, he's a great guy and he brought the team different skills, different alternatives and the most important thing is to find a different place to how he was finding in Paris last year. I think it's to find the best place to help him to perform in the way that we want."