Premier League: Aston Villa v Tottenham, today, 4pm
Vedran Corluka summed up the frustration felt by Tottenham's players at their season of under-achievement.
In contrast to today's opponents Aston Villa, Tottenham are still not assured to be playing in the Premier League next season - never mind the Champions League.
Like his manager Harry Redknapp, the Croatian defender believes Spurs have too much quality to go down.
He said: "Everyone here at Spurs had that hope to be where Villa are now.
"Now we need to show it on the pitch.
"But we had a bad start to the season and hopefully we won't repeat that again.
"We were hoping to be in the top four or five teams, but after things went wrong at the start, the pressure was on the side and the manager."
Juande Ramos left after eight games and Redknapp was brought in - but Corluka was honest in his assessment of who was to blame for Tottenham's prolonged stay in the bottom three.
He added: "That was the fault of the players.
"We didn't perform how we could do and a new manager came in and changed things."
A huge motivation for Corluka and his team-mates is to avoid the drop that could lead to a drastic decline in the status and profile of the club.
He admitted: "We don't want the same thing to happen to us that happened to Leeds.
"They also had a great team but they were relegated. But we are confident that we will stay in the league.
If Spurs do survive, Corluka will be reluctant to go into the prediction game that went so horribly wrong in the current campaign.
He added: "It is difficult to say about being in the top four or six. We have no argument to say this.
"We said that at the start of this season but we are in this position.
"But we need to do something and then we can say we will stay there. We are far from that now.
"We need to start to do things and not just talk about targets.
"We need to be there and to do it.
"Then we can talk about the next target.
"Everyone was saying at the start of this season that we need to be in the top six so if we are not there then everything we have achieved this season cannot have been a success.
"We are not where we want to be so it is not a success.
A Tottenham win at Villa can only be secured by what Corluka admits would be a major improvement in his team's away form.
"And such a win would also be a boost for bitter rivals Arsenal in their battle with Villa for a top four finish.
He said: "We don't think about things like that.
We just think of ourselves and what we need to do." One encouraging note for Corluka from Arsenal is the return to fitness of striker Eduardo (inset).
He admitted: "It is great to see him back.
"He is a great person and a great player. I saw him several times when he was recovering from the injury.
"It is good for Croatia that he is fit, but I don't think we can overtake England in the World Cup group.
"That will be tough because England are playing better than before.
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"We are hoping that we can do well at Wembley again, but England are the favourites."
LIKELY LINE-UPS
ASTON VILLA
Friedel
Cuellar
Davies
Knight
L Young
Milner
Petrov
Barry
A Young
Agbonlahor
Heskey
TOTTENHAM
Gomes
Corluka
Woodgate
King
Chimbonda
Lennon
Jenas
Palacios
Modric
Pavlyuchenko
Keane
BEST BET
Villa are as short as Evens to stuff Spurs (3/1), but they've won only two of their last seven homes, both against second-tier class - West Brom and Doncaster - and are on a six-game winless run. You can get 12/5 (Skybet) that on-fire Robbie Keane notches.
DON'T MISS A KICK !
Live Match - Aston Villa vs Tottenham ( 12 : 00 PM EST )
( Steve Stammers / Mirror )
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