Football
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Jan Vertonghen says Tottenham won't look for excuses against Chelsea

Jan Vertonghen believes Tottenham's motivation to beat Chelsea on Sunday will ensure they shrug off any fatigue.

Spurs face the Premier League champions in the lunchtime kickoff at White Hart Lane, just over 48 hours after returning from a gruelling 5,000-mile round trip to Azerbaijan.

But defender Vertonghen, who played 90 minutes against West Ham last Sunday and in their Europa League win over Qarabag on Thursday night, insists there will be no excuses.

"It seems very tough but when you go on the pitch on Sunday at 12 p.m. you have to do it," he said. "It's a good game for us to be motivated. We will be on top again like we always are and everyone will be fit again.

"If you see a team in a run of good form like us, you can keep going until the last minute. Last season we scored a lot of goals in the last minute so that shows just how fit we are. We have a big squad and everyone is ready to go again and again.

"We don't have to look for excuses. We'll be ready for Chelsea."

Victory would leave Spurs 13 points ahead of the stuttering Blues and reinforce the growing belief that the north London side, unbeaten since the opening day of the campaign, could be genuine title contenders themselves.

"They are a good team, but we have shown great form this season, especially at home," Vertonghen added.

"It will be another big game, but it's like that every week in the Premier League. We will have to be on top of Chelsea to beat them.

"Thirteen points ahead would be a lot, but they have one of the best squads in the Premier League -- maybe even the best squad -- so they can turn things around and we expect a very good Chelsea side on Sunday.

"We set our goal as fourth place, so just because we have won a couple of games in the last week we can't say we have to go for the title. We will just try to finish as high as possible and anything extra will be a great achievement.

"We have some very young players who are very ambitious. For them it's important to achieve something -- last year we made the final of the League Cup which was a good thing but this group wants more and this year I think we are ready to do it."

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