Tottenham Hotspur are having a nightmare end to the season as they fell to another Premier League defeat on Thursday night.
Tottenham were beaten 1-0 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, with Enzo Fernandez’s goal in the 50th minute proving the difference.
Both teams also had a goal each disallowed, but the Blues held on in the end in a game that could have easily been a goal-fest on another day.
The defeat increased the pressure on Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou, who was booed on several occasions during and after the match.
For instance, some Tottenham fans were unhappy with Postecoglou’s decision to replace Lucas Bergvall with Pape Matar Sarr.
Postecoglou, speaking to reporters on Friday ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Southampton, explained why he took Bergvall off.
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Ange Postecoglou says Lucas Bergvall ‘didn’t look himself’ in Tottenham loss to Chelsea
Postecoglou explained how he felt Bergvall was struggling from a physical perspective before he opted to take him off.
The Tottenham manager said he felt the team needed an injection of energy to finish the game strongly, which he felt Sarr provided.
“I think Lucas has been outstanding all year but I thought last night he didn’t look himself physically and in terms of running power,” Postecoglou told football.london.
“We needed some energy to finish strong and I felt Pape gave us that.”
What Ange Postecoglou said about his ear-cupping gesture after Pape Matar Sarr’s disallowed goal
Postecoglou’s decision to replace Bergvall with Sarr led to some Tottenham fans chanting that the head coach didn’t know what he was doing.
Bergvall had delivered an impressive performance which Spurs supporters raved about during the game.
Sarr then went on to put the ball into the back of the net, after which Postecoglou appeared to make an ear-cupping gesture towards the Spurs fans.
Postecoglou was asked about his reaction to Sarr’s disallowed goal last night, and he said what he did was misinterpreted.
“It’s incredible how things get interpreted,” Postecoglou told reporters.
“We’d just scored, I just wanted to hear them cheer. Because we’d been through a tough time, and I thought it was a cracking goal.
“I wanted them to get really excited. I felt at that point we could potentially go on and win the game. I just felt momentum was on our [side].
“It doesn’t bother me, it’s not the first time they’ve booed my substitutions or my decisions, that’s fine, they’re allowed to do that.
“But we’d just scored a goal, just scored an equaliser, I was just hoping we could get some excitement.
“If people want to read into that that somehow I’m trying to make a point about something, like I said, we’d been through a tough time, but I just felt there was a bit of a momentum shift there.
“If they get really behind the lads, I thought we had the momentum to finish on top of them.”
