Dier: "We always want to do better"

Mauricio Pochettino always takes a pragmatic view of results good or bad and Eric Dier followed that reflective path after firing us to our sixth win in eight matches - matching our best start to a Premier League season.

The midfielder scored the only goal of the game against a stubborn Cardiff City at Wembley on Saturday.

It was his first goal since April, 2017 and he won’t have many easier tasks than when he pounced from close range in the eighth minute, his goal the difference between the teams on a rainy day in the capital.

It’s the first time we’ve won six of our first eight games in the Premier League era, matching our best points tally of 18 at this stage set in 2016/17.

Approaching 200 appearances for the Club, Eric said: “At times things haven’t felt very good at the beginning of the season. Maybe we’re a bit out of touch with reality sometimes, we always want to do better but overall we’ve had a really positive start and that’s what we wanted, to start well.

“Maybe in recent seasons one of the criticisms is that we haven’t started so well so we can be happy where we are, but we can always do better and now when we get back from international duty there is a chance for us to keep improving and keep trying to break down those records.”

As for the game, Eric felt we should really have rubber-stamped our dominance having clocked up 75% possession and racked up 19 shots to Cardiff’s eight.

“I thought we controlled the game throughout, created a lot of chances and the only negative is that we’ve only come away with one goal, I feel like it should have been a lot more,” he added.

“It would have been really disappointing if we’d conceded a goal. They had a chance from a set-piece where I think I should have done better myself and a few half-chances, but nothing very clear. For the most part and overall, we can be happy.

“We’ve got the clean sheet, we’ve won and we can go into the international break feeling positive.”