It’s painful – Tottenham coach Postecoglou dejected by defeat to Chelsea

Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou admitted today’s defeat to Chelsea, in which his side squandered a 2-0 lead to lose 4-3, was “painful”.

Two Marco Cucurella slips allowed the hosts to take a convincing early lead through goals from Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski, but then Spurs fell apart.

Jadon Sancho pulled one back and Enzo Fernandez’s goal, sandwiched between two Cole Palmer penalties, put Chelsea in control.

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Cole Palmer puts the game beyond doubt with Panenka’s penalty kick! pic.twitter.com/JE96MpFUrr

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Son Heung-min reduced the deficit late on, but it was not enough for Spurs, who are 11th in the table.

“For sure it’s sore, it’s sore,” Postecoglou told Match of the Day.

“We started the game really well, but as our season went on, we lost (Cristian) Romero after 20 minutes and that disrupted us a bit, and they scored straight after that.

“We had moments to get the third score and at half-time we were in a decent position. The second half is ding dong, especially at the beginning, they scored, but we had a great chance with Son, we didn’t use it and then they went up 3-2.

“I thought both penalties were our bad decisions, we need to show more discipline. In the end, the critical moments caught us.

“I think there were quality chances, but I don’t think there were too many of them. I can’t remember goalkeepers making a ton of top quality saves.

“We’ve had more than good sides in that department and when there’s quality, you’re going to have moments.

“There were things we could have done better for sure.”

We played well today – Postecoglou

Postecoglou was mobbed by the away fans after the 1-0 defeat by Bournemouth in midweek and there was again muffled booing at the final whistle.

He added: “We didn’t play well in midweek but we did today. They are a top side, you have to give them credit. We got in the way at key moments. We have to understand that it is difficult to stop us when we play our football. Two penalties were bad. When you play against these top teams, the momentum changes quickly.”

To compound a miserable afternoon for Spurs, both centre-backs Romero and Micky van de Ven failed to complete the 90 minutes.

“Obviously, Romero was really disappointing. After 20 minutes, he felt something in his quadriceps and could not continue,” he said.

“Brennan (Johnson) wasn’t feeling well and tried to settle down at half-time but he just wasn’t ready to go there.

“Micky (van de Ven) was just a bit tired. The plan was always to try to give him 60 or 70 (minutes) today.”