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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Nick Purewal

Ange Postecoglou takes blame for painful Tottenham defeat against Chelsea: 'That's on me'

Ange Postecoglou shouldered the full blame for Tottenham’s wretched 2-0 Premier League defeat at Chelsea.

Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson claimed headed goals to condemn Spurs to a third-straight Premier League defeat.

Tottenham now trail fourth-placed Aston Villa by seven points, and may now struggle to overhaul Unai Emery’s side despite still holding one game in hand.

Spurs conceded two more set-piece goals, to take their tally to 16 in the league, in another dismal display of disorganisation.

Postecoglou insisted the defeat was wholly down to him however, admitting Spurs lacked the right frame of mind at Stamford Bridge.

“It wasn’t great, it is fair to say we didn’t play anywhere near well enough to get anything out of the game,” said Postecoglou.

“It wasn’t a great performance, we didn’t play anywhere near the right football or have the mindset I’d expect. And that’s on me.

“We were so far off it, we lacked any real sort of conviction and positive mindset on the ball. We had no aggression with our without the ball.

“And that is nothing like us. If nothing else we’ve tended to be very competitive. We had bigger issues than set-pieces tonight.”

Spurs are stumbling towards the end of the season (REUTERS)

Spurs will now make the trip to Liverpool on Sunday, before hosting Burnley and Manchester City.

A trip to Sheffield United will round off Postecoglu’s first campaign in north London, but Spurs will now be unlikely to climb back into the top four to qualify for the Champions League next season.

Spurs have slipped to three consecutive league defeats for the second time this season, but Postecoglou did not want to examine that sequence in detail.

“It is what it is, I don’t really want to think about it in those terms,” said Postecoglou.

“It is my responsibility to prepare the team for every game to reach certain levels, and we did not manage that tonight.”

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