King: Not feeling sorry for himself

Related links

Teams

• Tottenham Hotspur

Players

• Ledley King

Also see

• Sky Sports experts
• Transfer Centre
• Super 6: Win £100k

Ledley King has urged his Tottenham team-mates to respond in the right manner following a second consecutive defeat.

Spurs lost to Middlesbrough on the opening day of the season and turned in another disappointing display as they were beaten by Sunderland on Saturday.

Juande Ramos' side had been tipped to challenge for a place in Europe after a busy summer in the transfer market but King does not feel the players can afford to let their heads drop.

Tottenham visit in-form Chelsea this weekend and King admits it will be important to boost morale in the camp ahead of the game.

"It's been a disappointing start but now we have to pick ourselves up because the next game is Chelsea, so we can't feel sorry for ourselves - we have to continue to work hard," King told the club's official website.

"Everyone knows Chelsea is a tough game and we've had many tough games against them, especially over the last couple of years.

"They've got off to a great start but we've got to go there and give a good account of ourselves, so this week will be about lifting the spirits and getting the buzz back around the dressing room."

King concedes that it was especially hard to stomach the defeat at home to Sunderland.

He explained: "It's disappointing because we want to make White Hart Lane a fortress, so we didn't want to mark our first home game of the season with a defeat.

"It could have gone either way and I don't think they had many opportunities in the first half, but they put their chances away and, although we had a lot of possession, we couldn't seem to break them down."