Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has urged for trust to be placed in match officials after Leicester City fan Kevin Friend was replaced as the referee for Spurs' Premier League clash with Stoke City on 18 April.

Neil Swarbrick will referee the fixture as second-placed Spurs, who are chasing a first league title since 1961, look to close the seven-point gap on leaders Leicester with five games left. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had said the Premier League was setting a dangerous precedent by replacing the referee and Pochettino agreed with his north London counterpart.

"We never complain. I want to say that we trust in all the referees. I think in that moment, because we never complain, it wasn't our decision. But I think we need to trust in all the referees and the decision maybe is difficult to understand for all the people but it wasn't our decision," Pochettino told reporters on 15 April.

Much has been made of a fixture list that means Spurs play after Leicester City every weekend until the final day of the season, but Pochettino said his side must remain focused on their own task rather than Leicester's results.

"We cannot change that and we need to try to put the pressure on in the way that we can. And then believe, believe and to be focused on us. I think that we're in a very good position, we need to try to fight to the end of the season and the only way to put pressure on them is to win games like against Manchester United," said Pochettino.

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