Villas-Boas: Tottenham don’t have the experience to challenge for title

Andre Villas-Boas has claimed that Tottenham do not have the experience to deal with the pressure of being Premier League title contenders.

Spurs have been touted as possible outsiders for the title this season following the arrivals of players such as Paulinho, Etienne Capoue, Nacer Chadli, Vlad Chiriches, Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Roberto Soldado.

However, the Tottenham boss moved to play down talk of a possible title challenge ahead of his side’s clash with Norwich City at White Hart Lane on Saturday.

“I think our level of expenditure in the transfer market raises expectations – but they have to be real expectations not false expectations, this is my point of view,” said Villas-Boas.

“We don’t have the experience to deal with the pressure of a team that plays for the title.

“We have never done it in recent years and we will compete as usual for the Champions League places.

“We assume the responsibility of having failed that objective last season and we want to do better this season.”

The Portuguese coach added: “Our objective is the same – Champions League qualification. It never crossed our mind to do anything different after the changes we have made. I think this is the minimum requirement towards what we want to achieve.”

Villas-Boas also expects competition for places to be intense at White Hart Lane following the arrival of seven new faces during the summer.

“The players have really stepped up a level in terms of individual quality,” he continued. “Everybody will compete very hard for a place in the team. It looks like a new start for us.”