Rose: 'Arsenal social media posts motivation enough'

Pochettino's players took all important motivation for their Carabao Cup tie with Arsenal on Wednesday, from twitter and instagram posts made by their rivals after their Premier League defeat at the Emirates in early December.  Defender Danny Rose, who captained Tottenham on the night in the absence of Hugo Lloris and Harry Kane, has revealed that putting the result right was all that mattered on the night. 

Tottenham beat their fiercest rivals 2-0 away from home to seal progression to the semi-finals of the competition, and after the match, Rose spoke with brutal honesty about his thoughts on the outcome of the fixture. He said: "We were fully relishing the opportunity. Players that have only played 10 games for Arsenal were getting ahead of themselves. We used that in a positive way."

Rose continued: "Our only motivation this evening was remembering the nonsense that Arsenal posted after the game a few weeks ago. That was our motivation. 'Karma is a.... it's a.... you know? They fully deserve what they got, Arsenal. We had the motivation of getting to the semi-final so we're over the moon that we're in the semis. But the cherry on top was silencing them."

After captaining the side for the first time, Rose also took the opportunity to speak of his pride at leading his side out. He also admitted that he has been forced to push his way back into the set-up after a frank phone call with manager Mauricio Pochettino. Rose said: "We spoke for quite a long time and the one main thing that stuck out from what he said to me was, 'Danny - stop wasting time'. So yeah, I'm not wasting any more time. I've got my head down again and I'm doing alright at the minute. I'm trying to get back to where I was a couple of years ago."

Tottenham are chasing their first trophy since 2008; when they won the League Cup under Juande Ramos. And, after drawing another derby tie with Chelsea in the semi-finals , Rose is even more motivated to get his hands on a maiden piece of silverware. He concluded: "Winning any trophy would be special for all of us. The majority of us have been together for the last four or five years. It's been a long journey. To win a trophy together would be amazing."