Spurs defender: Naughton’s ‘not a real left-back’

Benoit Assou-Ekotto

By Ben Pearce, Tottenham correspondent Tuesday, January 22, 2013
11:59 AM

Benoit Assou-Ekotto is confident he will regain his first-team spot in the Spurs defence, stating that his right-footed rival Kyle Naughton is “not a real left-back”.

Assou-Ekotto has recently returned from a knee injury which ruled him out for four months and, having initially made his comeback in the FA Cup victory over Coventry, he was named on the bench against Manchester United on Sunday as Naughton started at left-back for the fifth league game in a row.

However, Assou-Ekotto replaced his team-mate in the 64th minute before delivering the left-wing cross which produced Tottenham’s equaliser – and he believes his natural advantages will prove decisive once he regains full match fitness.

“I’m not worried because obviously I can do stuff with my left foot that he [Naughton] can’t do,” said Assou-Ekotto. “He’s not a real left-back and I don’t think he has the same left foot as me, so I’m not worried about that.

“To come back in the Premier League is quite hard because it’s high-tempo, but sometimes it’s easier to play against Man United than against a team in the bottom half, so I think it was a good game for me to come back in.

“We can be happy with the result. We can have a positive attitude and say ‘okay, we got a 1-1 draw against Man United’ but at the same time we can be sad because we missed five good opportunities against them.

“But we did what they normally do to many teams – we scored in the last minute. If we see the game this way we can say that it’s a good point for us.”

Tottenham’s draw with the league leaders coincided with Arsenal’s defeat at Chelsea, but Assou-Ekotto says he and his team-mates have little interest in the Gunners’ fortunes.

“I don’t care, and I think we shouldn’t care about the other teams,” he said. “We have to be focused only on ourselves, and to have a target not to lose any games.

“Even if we only got one point at the weekend, maybe at the end of the season this point will be very important.”

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