LONDON – Ange Postecoglou admitted his Tottenham Hotspur flops have “lost belief” after a dismal 2-0 English Premier League defeat at Chelsea on May 2 left their hopes of Champions League qualification in tatters.
Spurs needed a win at Stamford Bridge to close the gap on fourth-placed Aston Villa in the race to finish in the top four. But, instead, they slumped to a third successive loss – following a 4-0 thrashing by Newcastle United and a 3-2 defeat by Arsenal – after goals from Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson fired Chelsea to victory.
Fifth-placed Tottenham are seven points behind Villa (67) with four games left, while Unai Emery’s men have three to play – meaning that even if Spurs win their game in hand they will still be four points behind instead of just one had they defeated Chelsea.
With their Champions League hopes fading, Postecoglou conceded his players are no longer playing with the confidence that infused their performances earlier this season, but the 58-year-old Australian also took the blame.
“It wasn’t good enough and I have to take responsibility for that, it is on me,” he said.
“I am the manager and I am the one putting them out there and it was not good enough. When we put in a performance like we did in the first half, it meant my message wasn’t getting through.”
Spurs’ issues with defending set pieces were decisive again – both goals conceded were from free kicks, although not directly – leaving Postecoglou to bemoan his side’s collapse in the final weeks of his first season in charge.
“We’ve lost a bit of belief and conviction in our football and that is on me to change that,” he added.
“We’ve been in a bit of a grind for a while now, that is part of our challenge and part of our growth. We have to go out there and perform, and sometimes you have to grind it out. We were poor today.”
Asked if Tottenham’s top-four bid was over, the downcast Postecoglou then said: “I don’t know how to answer these questions. We were poor today, what is the point of thinking about anything else?”
Eighth-placed Chelsea could still salvage their campaign by qualifying for Europe, but even that is not guaranteed to save manager Mauricio Pochettino from the demands of club co-owner Todd Boehly.
Boehly has already sacked Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter since taking charge in 2022, with Pochettino responding to recent reports about his future by pleading for time to revive the club.
“I want to say enough is enough. I think all managers need time to translate their ideas and their philosophy. We need to have time,” Pochettino said of his future.
“There is a lot of work to do. We will see if we have time to build this way. It’s difficult to see every single week that I am under scrutiny and judgment.”
On his side’s victory, the 52-year-old Argentinian added: “We are in a good place. We have amazing professionals working on set pieces. The team really showed we wanted to build this way to play.” AFP, REUTERS
