Danny Rose accepts Tottenham have been below par this season but hopes the 2-1 win at Brighton on Saturday can put them on the right track.
Spurs lost three games in a row for the first time under Mauricio Pochettino as they suffered back-to-back Premier League losses against Watford and Liverpool before a Champions League reverse at Inter Milan.
Even though they won their opening three games of the season, including a 3-0 success at Manchester United, boss Pochettino was never convinced about the quality of the performances.
They put a stop to their mini-wobble with a testing win on the south coast on Saturday evening and the left-back, who was at his imperious best, is looking forward.
“We’ve not been up to standard. We’re very aware of that. It’s evident and it’s true that we’ve not played well,” Rose said.
“The manager’s made us well aware of it. We beat Newcastle, Fulham, even United but we’ve not played well.
“We obviously don’t want to lose against Watford and Liverpool but he sees it as a wake-up call and a bit of a reality check for us all.
“We’ve had three bad results but we’re back on track hopefully now and we’ve got a run of games now where it’s just play, recover, play, recover, and as players that’s all you could wish for.”
Their fast start to the season was unusual for Spurs as they are traditional slow starters and Rose knows they are hitting their normal peak period.
The England international also knows that, having finished in the top three for the last three seasons, expectations are higher.
“We’ve only got ourselves to blame for that,” he said.
“We’ve gone against the odds in the last two or three years and that’s just the standards we’ve all set for ourselves.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. That’s the standards we’ve set and we’re not going to shy away from that. Hopefully now we kick on.
“If I look back over the last few years we don’t start great and we normally pick up momentum around October and November and we always have a strong Christmas period.
“So it’s something that’s not good enough but it’s not something we’re worried about just yet and Saturday was a great start in hopefully picking up some momentum.”
