Chelsea 2- 0 Spurs | Ange’s verdict

Ange Postecoglou gave an honest assessment of the performance after our 2-0 loss against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Thursday evening.

The hosts started well and Trevoh Chalobah headed home the opener from Conor Gallagher’s free-kick on 24 minutes. Micky van de Ven cleared off the line from Nicholas Jackson as we came under pressure, although Cuti Romero headed a good chance wide seven minutes before the break.

We upped the pressure in the second half and had plenty of the ball without carving out clear-cut chances. Then a blow in the 72nd minute as Cole Palmer’s free-kick hit the underside of the crossbar and Jackson headed home the rebound. We tried to find a response, but half-chances came to nothing.

“It wasn’t a good night,” he told us. “We certainly didn’t play anywhere near the levels we needed to get a result here tonight. That’s disappointing.  I guess the responsibility lies with me to get that right.

“We didn’t have any belief or conviction in our football. It’s fair to say that’s been missing for a little while so, again, that’s my responsibility and up to me to fix.

“We’re lacking some conviction, some belief in our football and, look, I’ve got to take responsibility for that, I’m the one preparing the team and I’ve got to have a look at how I’m doing that.”

Asked in his post-match press conference if he could put his finger on the problems, Ange added: “Like I said, we lacked a real sort of conviction and positive mindset in our football. We didn't really have any fluency, any sort of aggression with and without the ball. It’s a bit unlike us because if nothing else we’ve always been competitive, especially in the first half, it was missing today.”