• Tottenham manager hails Champions League qualification
• ‘We picked an attacking team and took a big gamble’

Harry Redknapp acclaimed his Tottenham Hotspur players after they had qualified for the Champions League at Manchester City’s expense and described it as a greater achievement than winning the FA Cup with Portsmouth.

Peter Crouch’s 82nd-minute goal gave Tottenham a 1-0 victory over Manchester City to ensure they finish in the Premier League’s top four only 18 months after Redknapp was appointed with the club propping up the division.

“I think it was important for English football that someone got in outside of the usual four,” Redknapp said. “To be honest, at the start of the season Manchester City were the only team I could possibly see breaking in. But then I couldn’t see who would drop out either. I thought Liverpool were going to be very strong this year, having lost only two games the previous season. And, realistically, the best I could see for us was a place in the top seven.

“It’s great for the club. When I came here I think [the chairman] Daniel Levy was scared they were going to get relegated. That’s why they made the change [sacking Juande Ramos] after eight games; it was early in the season but they had only two points at the time and Daniel was afraid we were going to be in a relegation battle and we were for a lot of that year. It took us a long time to get out of it, so to be where we are now is a great achievement.”

It is the first time they have qualified for the European Cup since 1962 and the victorious players – led by an underpants-wearing dancing David Bentley – celebrated by emptying a large container of iced water over their manager. “It is still dripping off me,” Redknapp said half an hour later. “The players are absolutely delighted and I think we deserved it.

“If you look at the team I picked some people would think I was mad. We picked an attacking team and took a big gamble. We were one point in front of City; we could have played 4-5-1 but, no, we went for it. I said to the team: ‘Listen, we have got fantastic attacking players so let’s have a go.’

“Everybody except perhaps Aston Villa plays one up now when they go away and the teams that have beaten City here – Everton and Man Utd – played one up. But I didn’t want to go that way. I said: ‘This is the same shape of team that beat Arsenal and Chelsea so now let’s do it away from home.’”

The defeat for City led to post-match questions about whether Roberto Mancini, the manager they recruited to take over from Mark Hughes in December, would still be employed by the club next season.

“I’m disappointed because we lost but I also think we had very hard luck in some games and we must be proud for the way we had a good season,” the Italian said. “We will not be playing in the Champions League next season but we tried and we will play in the Europa League instead. We have improved a lot and next year we can improve a lot more again.”

To questions about his job, Mancini added: “I’m confident. I think I will stay here. Why not? I have worked here five months and you don’t start from the roof but the basement. We have worked very well and we are near the roof now. I am not a magician and I don’t have a magic wand. We wanted this [fourth] place and we tried, just like Liverpool and Aston Villa, but this is football.”

Redknapp was asked how it compared to his other managerial achievements: “It’s even better than winning the Cup [in 2008]. The Cup you can win with some lucky draws. You all know that if you can get some nice draws, three or four wins and you are there. But I think this a better achievement.

“I just wanted to finish fourth but the chairman has just asked me who Arsenal are playing on Sunday and I think he wants to see if we can finish above them. I’m just happy with fourth. But I didn’t get here because I’m a mug. I know I’m a good manager and I wouldn’t have lasted 1,100 games if it was just because the chairmen at my clubs liked me. Most of them probably didn’t like me but I had to be doing something right.”

The 63-year-old said he felt invigorated to be the only English manager in the Champions League next season. “I don’t see why I should pack in. I’m on the road at five every morning and I don’t feel old. If I wanted to walk the dogs up a beach every day I would pack it in. But we will have go in the Champions League. What else can you do but have a go.”

Tottenham’s impressive captain, Ledley King, who is troubled by chronic knee problems, said: “At the moment we’re in fourth place. We still have to qualify for the Champions League,” he said. “But that’s why I still work hard to get on the pitch, because of moments like this. I have been waiting for this for a long time; all the players have. We have worked hard all season for this.”

Tottenham HotspurHarry RedknappPremier LeagueDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk

Tottenham leave egg on our faces, Wenger sums up Arsenal’s plight, Arteta takes inspiration from the Three Stooges, Mancini brings an old joke to mind and that kiss was just wrong

Tottenham Hotspur are full of surprises

Who are the team that’s just beaten Arsenal and Chelsea and what have they done with the real Spurs? This time last week, Tottenham’s season was pootling along much as we’ve come to expect: an expectation-raising opening-day win against Liverpool and a 9-1 thrashing of Wigan Athletic here, a routine hiding by Arsenal and beatings at the hands of Wolves and Sunderland there. When a decent Cup run was derailed by Pompey’s motley crew of misfits just before season-defining encounters against Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, even the most optimistic White Hart Lane regulars must have feared their campaign was about to flatline.

Their first Premier League win against Arsenal in aeons and an astonishing demolition job on Chelsea later and those of us who confidently predicted Tottenham’s end-of-season collapse have been left picking eggshell, albumen and vitellus from our gormless, slack-jawed faces. It’ll be a small price to pay if Harry Redknapp’s increasingly mature side remain a serious force to be reckoned with in next season’s Premier League. [BG]

Arsenal: ‘Unlucky, but poor’

Arsène Wenger unwittingly summed up Arsenal’s season after watching Wigan battle back to beat the Gunners 3-2 at the DW Stadium. “The goals we conceded were very poor,” said the Arsenal manager. “Unlucky but poor.” Unlucky but poor. The Gunners have been unfortunate, for sure, with injuries taking a heavy toll on a thin squad (but even then their lack of squad depth is a reason for what is surely now their failure to win the title, not an excuse), but they’ve also been the dictionary definition of poor: “insufficient”, “not adequate in quality”, “deficient or lacking in something specified”.

That “something specified” yesterday was a bit of gumption, a bit of “thou shall not pass” spirit, the nous to take the sting out of a side of no little quality themselves fighting for their Premier League lives. What makes it all the more galling for the Gunners is the fact the title will be won this season by the lowest points tally since at least 2002-03. This campaign was a chance, a 30-storey chance with magnificent chandeliers and deep-pile carpets, for this interminable stage of Project Wenger to at last emerge from its pupa and flutter off with the title. Instead the north London side remain in their chrysalis. [JA]

Arteta is better than a poke in the eye

Mikel Arteta is the neutral’s poster boy. He seems to have it all: the brave recovery from horrendous injury, rare vision and artistry on the field, dignity and equanimity despite constantly being overlooked by Spain, even the typos on his Twitter page are endearing (”Still a bit sore from the game at Goodison, was so nice to score a free kick and to get three pints”, “Thank you for all your support and woshes, today was a wonderful day for me”).

“It was amazing to see so many Evertonians at the game yesterday,” is his latest tweet, but on Saturday Morten Gamst Pedersen was left seeing only half the number of supporters at Ewood after Arteta went all Three Stooges on the Blackburn midfielder, attempting to place his index finger on the inside-back of the Norwegian’s skull via his right eye. Even then his semi-apology brought you on to his side. “I made a mistake, I shouldn’t have reacted and I apologise for it,” he said. “I probably got more upset because I was out for so long and don’t want a stupid challenge like that injuring me again. I wasn’t even touching the ball – he just trod on my ankle. It was stupid. If he did it because he wanted me to react then he got what he wanted, which I shouldn’t have done, and I’m sorry for that.” Nevertheless, it has sullied Arteta’s image. That sort of thing has no place in football. Rugby, yes, but not football. [JA]

If it ain’t broke, Roberto Mancini shouldn’t try to fix it

Far be it from us to latch on to lazy national stereotypes, but when it became apparent that what looked like a seriously attack-minded Manchester City side sent out by Roberto Mancini to face Manchester United had been instructed to approach the opposition half with extreme caution, that old gag about five-geared Italian tanks (one forward, four reverse) sprang to mind. A pale imitation of the rampant swashbuckling City team that had swept all before them in their three previous games, it came as no great surprise that they conceded a late, late winner against their fiercest rivals for the third time this season. The crucial error may have been Craig Bellamy’s late attempted crossfield pass, but Mancini should probably shoulder much of the blame for trying to play the occasion instead of the actual game. [BG]

Gary Neville and Paul Scholes should get a room

That kiss was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. And before you scuttle off down to the comments section to level accusations of homophobia at us, don’t bother. If it was two ripped and dashing footballers – Matt Taylor-on-Jason Roberts, for example – we’d have no problem with such ostentatious public displays of man-love and possibly be a little turned on. Hell, even if Gary Neville had just planted one hand on either side of Paul Scholes’s head and laid a black-and-white movie style smacker on his lips, that would have been fine too. But it was the tenderness of the moment, the cupping of the face, the tilting of the heads, the eyes closed expectantly, the blur of ginger hair and wispy not-quite-beardedness in yesterday’s sport sections that put us off our lunch. Shudder. [BG]

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