Spurs coach Ange Postecoglou has labelled his side’s performance against Arsenal in the North London derby “not good enough” after going down 2-1 at the Emirates.
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Tottenham superstar Heung Min Son struck early, belting a deflected volley past Gunners keeper David Raya in the 25th minute.
But Spurs’ lead only lasted 15 minutes, with Arsenal scoring two quickfire goals that didn’t come without controversy.
The first, a Dominic Solanke own-goal, came after the hosts were awarded a corner that replays showed was an incorrect decision, last touching the foot of winger Leandro Trossard.
When asked about the referee’s mistake post-match, Postecoglou kept his composure, instead putting the focus back on his team’s display.
“It did (come off the Arsenal player), but I don’t want to talk about referees because I think I’ve got to take responsibility for my team, I’ll let the referees be responsible for theirs,” Postecoglou said.
“It wasn’t a corner, but that’s how things are going for us at the moment. That aside, we weren’t anywhere near the level we needed to be in the first half in such a big game.
“We need to understand that what we can control is the first thing we need to focus on.”
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The Australian coach also lamented his side’s inability to produce the high press and intense game plan Postecoglou has become renowned for in his stints at Spurs and Celtic.
“Yeah no, not good enough, especially the first half. Way too passive, allowed Arsenal to take control of the game,” he said.
“Really disappointed in the way, with and without the ball, (we) sort of allowed them to dictate the tempo and paid a price for it. Our second half was a little bit better but nowhere near good enough.
“It’s not who we are, it’s not the way I set the team up, it’s not the way we want to play. To be sitting in there and allowing Arsenal to play to their tempo.”
“I think that second goal was just the damage of our first half, irrespective of everything, we just didn’t play anywhere near the identity we want us to be.
“We are an aggressive team with and without the ball, and we showed that seven days ago against Liverpool.
“Tonight… we were way too passive and that’s not acceptable. It was a disappointing second goal to concede too, but we weren’t playing anywhere where we need to.”
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Spurs are without a host of key players, with regular centre backs Micky van de Ven and Christian Romero both sidelined alongside Rodrigo Bentancur and Guglielmo Vicario.
So how does Postecoglou plan to turn Tottenham’s fortunes around?
“There’s no magic cure here, you have to get up tomorrow and work hard. Go into Sunday prepared to go into battle and turn around our fortunes and our season,”
“There’s nothing magical that’s going to change this, there’s always reasons for all this to happen. But the reality is our results in the league have been nowhere near good enough and that needs to change.”
“This can’t be accepted by anyone at the club, us losing this many games in a league season is not right, I know we are going through a tough trot.”
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