“\[I’m\] not thinking too far ahead. We still have eight games and FA Cup games to play. We can't dive there from what we've done, if we come off the track we've been on and we start focussing on things we can't control, then you probably come in a situation where you become unstuck. We need to focus on this next game ahead. Every game we play is a big game for us, we want to make sure we can perform at a high level and build some consistency. Wherever that takes us in the last two or three games, we will know. What you control is your performances and your results and, if we do that, we give ourselves a chance. But, after the window, really pleased. We've done business early, as you said, and those players enabled us now, along with the players who are still here now, to make sure we have a really good, strong second half of the season.”
Martin on competing in a London derby...
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“I think when you play a London derby, there's maybe your form and those sorts of aspects out the window because it's more bragging rights in a battle. But, we just need to focus on what we've been doing. If you look against the top teams in a quarter, we've had some good performance and we've built on those performances. Maybe we've been unfortunate with some of the results, the matches against United where we drew before Christmas, but we've actually performed better in those games. It takes time to build a team back to where you want it to be, it takes time to build confidence and momentum in a group, and they've certainly done that. The players now are relishing the opportunity to play against Chelsea at the stadium, that will bring an edge to us, it brings excitement definitely because you're playing in front of your own fans at the stadium and we just want to make sure that the performance backs up in terms of what we've been doing.”
On our last meeting with Chelsea in the league…
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“Everyone's opinion is different. I think, in that game, we had to surrender the ball a lot and we had to do a lot without the ball, but I thought they had lots of opportunity, lots of crosses, a lot of final third action and entry, but I thought our performance defensively was very solid. We were under a lot of pressure, alongside that you need some luck and we did have that, and then you have a wonderful strike from a world-class player in Keira \[Walsh\] to win the game. We've built on those performances since, we've had some really good performances since then until now, and we need to make sure of, accumulation of a lot of things, being better with the ball, braver with the ball, definitely more personality within character when we do have it individually, and then defensively we have to have the same robustness and compactness to our game. We have to be hard to beat, but we have to be front-footed and we have to make sure that Chelsea know that they're going to be in a game.”
On having more opportunities at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium…
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“I think this club has done everything. They want us to play at the stadium and we'll continue to do that. We will build on the amount of games we play there because the club are behind it - the owners, the leadership - which is nice. Then, to grow a fan base you have to deliver performances, in my opinion, you have to be performing consistently, you have to make sure the fans are excited to come and watch you, you have to give them an entertaining game where they can come and watch, and that's down to us and down to me to make sure I motivate the team and energise the team to put in their performances and, if we do that, we've seen throughout the season now, the fan base has grown at home and away. We have to make sure we make them want to come back and watch us at the stadium when we're playing and we want to have bigger attendances, by doing good performances you probably get that.”
Martin on whether we can exploit the weakness in Chelsea’s squad…
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“There are areas we feel we can exploit as a team, from the way we play, with our style of play, how we step up and how we prepare ourselves. I never like to say there's weaknesses in our opponents because you probably downgrade their actual level and I think our style implements on their style. I feel there are areas we can get into in certain moments that will cause them problems, we've been working on those aspects through the week now and, I feel if we get into the right areas with the right quality on them, we can cause them problems.”