Unai Emery says that when Tottenham get their injured players back fit they will return to challenging the top sides amid mounting pressure on Ange Postecoglou.

Spurs are on a poor run of form with just two wins in their last 12 Premier League games, and have been dumped out of both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup in the space of a week, with a 4-0 loss at Anfield compounded by the 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa on Sunday.

However, the club are in the midst of an injury crisis, with a number of players out for months, and key players hoping to return in the coming weeks. Postecoglou launched an impassioned defence of his players in his press conference after the loss at Villa Park.

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The Spurs boss stated: "Take a back four of Vicario, Dragusin, Romero, Van de Ven, Udogie, Maddison, Johnson, Solanke, Odobert, Werner...take them out of any team... How did Liverpool go today? And they just did that for one game.

"Do that for two-and-a-half months. Any team. Do that for two-and-a-half months in multiple competitions. I don't care about me. People will judge me. But you can't judge this group of players on what's happened. They've given everything, the performance.

"Like I said, two 18-year-olds, a 19-year-old, a 17-year-old, a 21-year-old goalkeeper starting against one of the best teams in the country at home. They've had a week off, they didn't play Thursday night against Liverpool. We did. Same group of players. Not a change. You can't measure this group of players on that and their performance where they're at. It's too easy for people to be critical of them.

"I just have huge admiration and respect for them. We kind of knew this game was going to be the finishing line because we knew what was coming ahead in terms of midweeks off and getting some players back. But they tried their hardest and that's all you can ask."

The loss against Villa has only worsened criticism of the team and Postecoglou, and Emery was asked after the game about whether the Spurs boss was being judged too harshly considering the length of the injury list. Emery gave a typically measured response, and says that when the missing stars return, performances will improve for the Lilywhites.

"I can analyse his work last year and the first six months of this season and I really appreciate a lot how Tottenham are playing with their style," Emery told reporters. "Last year they performed fantastic.

"Of course, every team has their injured players - they have more than normal. Of course, the potential they can have with every player being available is a little bit lower without them.

"I think we played a very good match today to stop them. They played well as well but it was not enough to beat us in this match. When they are going to recover players, they will perform again like they were doing."