The victory which closed the gap back to four points was only achieved in the 78th minute after in-form Crystal Palace more than held their own against the team second in the table.
But after Antonio Conte’s men had stolen a march with a win against Southampton 24 hours earlier, Pochettino said: “It was a great opportunity to show we are focusing on us, spending energy trying to improve our game and trying to fight with our opponents. We are showing that we learned a lot from last season as a team.
“One area that was key for us was to improve was our mental attitude. The team are now showing we are ready. We are ready this season to fight and, next season, we’ll be even better. We are in a very good way to develop our philosophy.”
Harry Kane, who set up the goal, said: “We knew our time would come and what a strike by Christian Eriksen! It is unbelievable. This is a tough place to come and we had to keep fighting. We knew we had to bounce back after the weekend and what a performance by everyone. We knew we had to dig deep and get a goal. It was a perfect win in the end.”
Tottenham are not resting on their laurels, however, and Pochettino is already looking forward to Sunday’s north London derby knowing that a win will guarantee Spurs finish above their rivals for the first time in 22 years.
“It is an exciting weekend,” he said.
“The last derby against Arsenal at White Hart Lane for our fans and we know what that games means for everyone. It’s important to be calm, try to recover, and to be ready to compete on Sunday.
Victor Wanyama could easily have missed the Arsenal clash, having been lucky to escape a second yellow card. By contrast, injury to Mamadou Sakho proved costly to a brave Palace battle.
“He has hyperextended the knee,” said manager Sam Allardyce. “It is certainly serious enough to keep him out for who knows how long, we won’t know until we diagnose it, but if it is ligament it may be the end of his loan spell.”
