LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino said Tottenham are "ready to win a title" after Saturday's 1-0 win over Middlesbrough kept the pressure on Chelsea.
Harry Kane's 58th-minute penalty secured a hard-fought victory at White Hart Lane and moved Spurs to within nine points of the runaway league leaders, who beat Arsenal 3-1 earlier in the day.
The win followed a 2-2 draw at Manchester City and Tuesday's goalless stalemate at Sunderland, but Pochettino dismissed suggestions his team are lacking a cutting edge.
"They were two against City and Sunderland away," the Spurs manager told a postmatch news conference at White Hart Lane.
"But we are second in the table. OK, it's good to put the standard higher. I am happy with that -- put the pressure on us. Yes, we are a real contender and yes we are a team ready to win a title. At that level it's good, good pressure. I feel I manage that pressure very well.
"We are saying in the last few weeks how difficult it is to score and how difficult it is to win games. We are second in the table, we keep the gap with Chelsea at nine points. I'm pleased with the performance because it's difficult to win games.
"Nine points is OK -- it's three games, but it's up to Chelsea now. It's up to us to keep pushing, to keep the pressure and to win games. That's important for us and the Premier League too."
Pochettino continued: "I'm always optimistic. Football is to enjoy, play and the opponent do their job. When you have the chance to score and play well and dominate the game, we didn't concede one shot on target.
"When you leave the game open at 1-0, always something can happen and you can concede. It's true that in the last few minutes we were a little bit on the touchline and the pitch too. But I think we played much better and in the end deserved the three points.
If they had scored, because it's football, OK, maybe we dropped two points, but we deserved the three points. You can say nothing about that."
Spurs were without the injured Danny Rose, who will have a scan on a knee problem on Monday, but Pochettino was pleased with the deputising Ben Davies, who was faced with "problematic" Boro winger Adam Traore.
"Ben Davies was very good, he played well and full credit to him," Pochettino said. "He [Traore] is a player who's very problematic and can put you in a very difficult position.
"You always talk about the squad and how important it is for all the players to be fit. You never know when you need to play then. It's for that at the start of the season, you have 24 or 25 players. Sometimes you need to rotate and give them time to play and keep motivating them.
"Like now in this case with an injury you need to play with Ben Davies. That is maybe a decisive moment. You need to use a player. That's why it's too difficult to explain why as a manager you have to rotate, because you never know when a player might be decisive and help you win big things."
Middlesbrough are only one point above the bottom three after Hull stunned Liverpool earlier in the day but Aitor Karanka is relaxed about being dragged deeper into the relegation battle.
"It was another good performance against one of the best teams in the league," said the Boro boss. "We knew at the beginning of the season we were going to fight until the end and we are in a good position playing well.
"The most important thing for me and the reason I'm so positive is because I have a team that is 150 percent committed."