Spurs 3-4 Chelsea | Ange’s verdict

Ange Postecoglou felt big moments went against us as we fell to a 4-3 defeat against Chelsea in the Premier League on Sunday.

We flew out of the traps at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to take a 2-0 lead after 12 minutes through Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski. Jadon Sancho pulled a goal back and then the key period as chances from Solanke, Heung-Min Son and Pape Matar Sarr, who headed against the crossbar, came and went.

Chelsea were level via Cole Palmer’s penalty on 61 minutes, Sonny angled a one-on-one chance just wide at 2-2 before the visitors took control with Enzo Fernandez’s strike (73) and Palmer’s second penalty (83). Son struck late (90+6) for 4-3, but there was no time to find an equaliser.

In amongst all that - more injuries. Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven returned, but Cuti was injured on 20 minutes, and Micky also needed treatment before coming off after 79, although Ange reported that he was ‘feeling tight’ rather than anything potentially more serious. Brennan Johnson also departed early in the second half due to illness.

Here’s what Ange had to say on our Review Show...

Can you sum that one up for us?

Ange: “Obviously, it’s a painful and disappointing. We started the game awfully well, again, played some fantastic football, apart from the goals we scored, but then we lose Cristian after the second goal, which is just the way it’s going for us. We don’t seem to get any time to get a real foothold in games or in our season. That disrupted us for a little bit, they obviously scored, but I still felt in the first half we had the bigger moments and could have got a third goal to kill the game off. In the second half, they started with a bit of impetus, got an equaliser, then we had a massive moment with Sonny to go 3-2 up, and that’s where the game can swing. We don’t take that, and then we let ourselves down with two poor challenges in the box to give away penalties, that gave them the advantage and left us with a mountain to climb.”

Is the key to put games out of sight when we’re having such good spells, as we did in the first half?

Ange: “To a certain extent, yes, but it also helps if you don’t lose your centre-half straight afterwards. The boys are giving everything. We’re on fumes at the moment terms of this playing squad, and what we didn’t need was to lose another player in that position. To be fair, Cristian wasn’t the one I was worried about, Micky was the one I was worried about, and he’s come off with a totally different injury. Cuti is a leader, a World Cup winner. If you want someone to take control of a game, he’s the man. If you then lose him after 20 minutes, it doesn’t allow us to do that. Even after that, I still felt we had big moments to get a third goal and kill the game off.”

What can you tell us about the injuries?

Ange: “Brennan just wasn’t feeling well, he wasn’t feeling well at half-time, wanted to give it a go. We got him back out there, but he just wasn’t right. The plan with Micky was always to play him 60, 70 minutes. Again, I wasn’t worried about Cristian, I thought he could play 90, and give Micky 60 or 70, but we had to keep him out there a bit longer. It doesn’t seem like he’s done anything, just felt a bit tight. Hopefully he’ll be fine.”

Ange later said in his press conference that Cuti’s injury was a quad issue.

How difficult will it be going forward in this spell with these injuries?

Ange: “As difficult as it has been leading up to it, but we got no choice, we’ll have to soldier on and keep going. It’s not from lack of trying with the players, some aren’t getting a rest, they’re playing every game and giving everything they can, and that’s all we can ask for.”

How much will it benefit the squad - particularly the younger players - to come through a period like this?

Ange: “I still think this period will help us in the long term, for sure. For all the players. Since I’ve been here, we haven’t had a smooth run with things. It’s always been a challenge to get some consistency and get players available, and consistency in the way we do things. We’ll get there. That time will come. In my experience, it always does come and when it does, having come through this, I think it will make us a stronger team.”

Finally Ange, how much will the players take from how we took the game to Chelsea?

Ange: “I think we’ve shown that this year. We’ve been inconsistent, but part of that inconsistency is also, in our good moments, we’ve shown we’re as good as anyone. You need to hang onto that. It’s not like we haven’t shown any potential to play against the best and outplay the best, so that exists, it’s how we bring it out in a more consistent basis.”