Micky van de Ven: It's too early to call Tottenham title contenders

Hope has returned to north London at the end of what had been a largely difficult year, with Spurs' struggles in the second half of last season compounded by homegrown star Harry Kane's exit.

Summer appointment Ange Postecoglou has brought excitement back to Tottenham, who moved up to second in the Premier League with Saturday's last-gasp, incident-packed 2-1 win against nine-man Liverpool.

The bookmakers' odds on Spurs winning the title continue to shorten and victory at Luton next weekend will see them, temporarily at least, go top, but defender Van de Ven is just enjoying the moment.

"It's early to say," the Netherlands international said. "But hopefully we can keep pushing now and we are going to see where it's going to end.

"It's early to say if we are title candidates this year but we will keep pushing, keep pushing and we're going to see.

"We want the best this season so we're going to see where it will end.

"We are not afraid of any team. We will keep playing our way and hopefully we can improve even more from how we are playing now and hopefully we can keep pushing."

Van de Ven may not want to talk about the title but had no issue saying that Champions League qualification is their goal after a memorable start to the season.

Spurs have certainly ridden their luck on a few occasions in the opening weeks, but nobody was thinking of such moments as they celebrated their second stoppage-time 2-1 win in as many home matches.

"It's really good in the dressing room," the smiling summer signing from Wolfsburg said. "I think the mentality of the whole team was really good.

"We kept pushing, pushing and pushing and of course sometimes you think it's going to be easier when they get the red card or maybe two red cards, but you see against Liverpool they are really good team.

"They made it even harder when they have 10 people, nine people, on the pitch but we kept pushing until the last minute and we scored the winning goal."

Asked if he had expected this when he joined Spurs, Van de Ven said: "Yes. I spoke with the trainer, I believed in his vision from the beginning and of course I saw the quality of the team and it was really good.

"If you see the players on the pitch and the training pitch together with the new players like (James) Maddison who came into the team.

"We have so much quality of course - I say of course but you never know how it will happen, but I trusted that we would have a good season."

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