Tottenham boss Juande Ramos is refusing to give up hope of a top-four Premier League finish.
Spurs boss calls for calm at White Hart Lane
Tottenham Hotspur boss Juande Ramos is refusing to give up hope of a top-four finish, despite the club's worst start to a Premier League season.
Ramos saw his side slump to a 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa at White Hart Lane on Monday night, as Darren Bent's late strike was not enough to cancel out goals from Nigel Reo-Coker and Ashley Young.
Villa also have their sights set on the UEFA Champions League qualifying spots and Martin O'Neill's men currently occupy fourth spot, with Spurs bottom of the table after recording only one point from four games.
Former Spurs manager Martin Jol was dismissed in the early stages of last term after a similarly unconvincing start, but Ramos insists there is still plenty of time to mount an assault upon the top four.
Spirit
"We've only played four games, it's only just begun," said the Spaniard.
"There is still room for us there. We had very little time to prepare - (Vedran) Corluka, (Roman) Pavlyuchenko and (Fraizer) Campbell are new to the club and haven't really had time.
"We are behind in our preparations. We need to keep the spirit going and climb as high up the table as possible.
"We've made an irregular start to the season having lost three games which makes it an uphill struggle for us.
Quality
"We've got a young squad with plenty of quality there and hopefully with calmness and experience we'll get a positive result and, after that, things could well change for us."
Ramos admitted he was furious with his players, but refused to single out goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, who was at fault for Young's strike just after the break.
"I'm always angry at the end of games like this with the players and myself as well," Ramos added.
"The blame I give to the goalkeeper is the blame that is due to him, like the other players. On other occasions he also stopped them scoring goals.
"I think he was absolutely magnificent apart from that goal."
