Tottenham had a frustrating game last night, especially in the first half where a Trevoh Chalobah looped header from Conor Gallagher a free kick sent Chelsea 1-0 up 24 minutes in.
Nicholas Jackson sealed the victory 72 minutes into the fixture after Cole Palmer’s free kick hit the outside of the crossbar to bounce out to the players.
The ball flew past Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Heung-Min Son as the two Spurs men clashed in trying to clear the ball, left floundering amongst one another.
Jackson then ran into the penalty area and headed the ball into the top left corner of Guglielmo Vicario’s goal.
The match left Tottenham, who currently remain 5th in the Premier League table but gave Chelsea the three point advantage to slip past West Ham into 8th place.
Nine points separate the two sides who will both be pushing for a European position.
Ange Postecoglou’s Post-Match Thoughts
Postcoglou’s thoughts on the game
The Tottenham boss said: ”Yeah, it wasn’t a great night for us, didn’t really reach anywhere near the levels we needed to get a result here tonight and fair to say we didn’t play anywhere near, as I said, the levels we needed to get something out of the game and we probably didn’t deserve it.”
Is this the most frustrating game since taking over?
Postcoglou expressed that: “Look, it wasn’t a great night, you know it’s fair to say we didn’t play anywhere near the football and didn’t have the mindset that I expect us to have so that’s on me, I’ve got to take responsibility for that. Ultimately I’m the one that’s putting them out for what they’re preparing for and when that was so far off it, I’ve got to look at myself and see how I’m preparing this team for it.”
What were the problems tonight?
The Lilywhites manager stated: “We lacked a real conviction and positive mindset in our football. We just didn’t really have any fluency, any sort of aggression with or without the ball and it’s a bit unlike us because if nothing else we’ve always been very competitive and especially in the first half it was missing today.”
His thoughts on three losses in a row
This is Spurs’ third loss on the bounce, following a 3-2 North London derby defeat against Arsenal and a 4-0 loss versus Newcastle.
Tottenham’s concluding games only see, to set further challenges for the boss as the remaining fixtures have them taking on Liverpool, Burnley, Manchester City and Sheffield United.
On the tough run of fixtures, Ange Postecoglou firmly stated that: ”It is what it is, I don’t think of that in those terms. Like I said, my responsibility is preparing the team every game to make sure we reach certain levels, we did do it and we didn’t do it today so that lies at my feet and I’ve got to fix that.”
Where do you feel, as a manager, you’ve fallen short?
Postecoglou repeatedly stated in this press conference that he was the only man to blame for the run of losses that Spurs have faced recently.
He said: ”Well when we performed in a performance like we did in the first half it means obviously my message isn’t getting through, so that’s for me to address. I’ll take responsibility, we were poor in the first half, I still think their goal was a foul but no one cares about that but we didn’t deserve anything more than that and that’s on me.”
Why was James Maddison not in the team today?
Maddison has featured in almost every fixture since recovering from his injury, which he suffered in his last clash against Chelsea where they beat Spurs 4-1 in November.
With Maddison not featuring in the starting XI, this left fans wondering why - especially as Tottenham push for top four as the season comes to a close.
The Aussie responded by saying: “No {it wasn’t fitness} I just thought we needed a freshen up of the team, I thought we’re going to need some legs today and obviously they’ve got my ball and a quick front three and I just thought we needed some legs in the midfield and with Bis [Yves Bissouma] and Pape [Matar Sarr] coming in, Deki [Dejan Kulusevski] coming in there, I thought it would help us. Fair to say it didn’t work though.”
Postecoglou’s ‘lack of interest’ in set pieces
Former Tottenham player and current TalkSport host, Jamie O’Hara slammed Postecoglou for saying that he ‘didn’t care about set pieces’ in his pre-match press conference leading up to the game.
O’Hara blamed this for being the reason that Spurs conceded a set piece against the Blues last night.
When asked about him stating this, the Spurs boss clapped back by saying: “That’s a really good question, I wouldn’t say I wasn’t interested, I said it’s not my priority but that’s okay, people think that what we’re missing is set pieces - that’s fine, I’ll do my job.”