Ramos angry but refuses to panic

Juande Ramos remained upbeat over Tottenham's prospects for the rest of the season after a 2-1 defeat by Aston Villa left Spurs bottom of the table.

"I'm always angry at the end of games like this with the players and myself as well," said manager Ramos after watching his side slip to a home loss.

"It's only just begun and there's still room for us there. I'm not going to carry out an assessment after one game.

"Hopefully with calmness and experience we'll get a positive result."

Spurs put in a limp display in front of their home fans, looking disjointed and dispirited throughout, but Ramos said the upheaval the club had faced in recent weeks was partly to blame.

Strikers Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov left for Liverpool and Manchester United respectively, while defender Vedran Corluka and forward Roman Pavlyuchenko - who both made their debuts against Villa - were bought on transfer deadline day earlier this month.

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"We were awful last night, the whole team is unbalanced, he played Modric out of position on the left and left Jenas on the bench even though he had a great game for England"
ModricDelight

"We had very little time to prepare - Corluka, Pavlyuchenko and Frazier Campbell are new to the club and haven't really had time," stated Ramos, who has suffered more league defeats than victories since taking over from the sacked Martin Jol in October 2007.

Ramos has overseen 19 victories from 46 matches, while Jol's squad won 67 games from a total of 148.

And Ramos conceded: "We are behind in our preparations. We need to keep the spirit going and climb as high up the table as possible.

"We've made an irregular start to the season, having lost three games, which makes it an uphill struggle for us."

And Spurs first-term coach Gus Poyet gave his support to goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, who allowed Ashley Young's shot to sneak under his body for Villa's second goal on Monday.

"Heurelho is going to be quite sad," said Poyet. "That's football, you can do everything right in the game but unfortunately you feel responsible for one of the actions.

"But he was outstanding. He saved us in the first half so there is nothing you can blame him for."

Spurs now face Wisla Krakow in the Uefa Cup on Thursday before they take on Wigan in the Premier League on Sunday, with both games at White Hart Lane.

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