Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Mousa Dembele has declared that his side's inability to beat smaller teams consistently ultimately cost them dearly in the battle for Champions League qualification.

Spurs missed out on fourth place by just a single point to bitter rivals Arsenal on the last day of the season, despite finishing the campaign with a 1-0 win over Sunderland.

Dembele believes that although Spurs have made progress under Andre Villas-Boas, his side need to show a ruthless streak next season to gatecrash the top four.

He told The Sun: "Against the top teams we are good. But against the small teams it's like, 'OK, the top teams would have finished these off by now'.

"We've dropped a lot of points against the bottom teams. We have to be aware next year.

"We haven't had a bad season. We have the points record, that's something positive. But at the end we are still a bit disappointed."

Despite being forced to settle for fifth place Spurs finished with a haul of 72 points, a club record in the Premier League era.