Spurs merit respect, says Dawson

Tottenham captain Michael Dawson says the club are worthy of their success and claims opponents are daunted by playing the north Londoners.

Spurs are riding high in the Premier League, sitting in third place, eight points above Chelsea and nine above Arsenal, but Dawson is remaining coy regarding talk of a title challenge this season.

“I honestly haven’t started to think of winning the title, putting that medal around my neck,” Dawson said.

“We can’t think of that. The gaffer’s playing it down.”

“There’s a long way in the season to go and we’re just concentrating on what we do, game by game, and we’ve got to keep performing and playing the way we do.”

“But when you look at the way we pass the ball, with flair and the pace we’ve got in the team with Kyle Walker, Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale and Ade (Emmanuel Adebayor), you know it’s going to scare teams.”

“And we are scaring teams, intimidating them. And that’s down to the lads’ performances. But we’ve every right to that now.”

Tottenham have enjoyed success under the stewardship of Harry Redknapp and Dawson says the respect that clubs now have for his side is well deserved.

“That respect people have for us now has come over a few years,” said Dawson.

“Starting four or five years ago when we just missed out on the Champions League.”

“We’ve earned that and we will keep improving. We feel we’ve developed into a real top team.”

“Since the gaffer came in, the players have got older and added experience and the ones he’s brought in have improved us. This summer he brought in Scotty (Scott Parker), Ade and Brad (Friedel), players who are playing at the top level at the moment.”