Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou felt his team didn’t start their 2-1 defeat to the Blues well in terms of tempo or intensity and gave themselves a mountain to climb.

First-half goals from Sammie Szmodics and Liam Delap gave Town a two-goal advantage at half-time with the North Londoners pulling one back through Rodrigo Bentancur in the second period, but the Blues held on for their first Premier League win in 22 years.

“We didn't start the game well at all,” Postecoglou admitted. “It was all sort of passive, without the ball, with the ball.

“I felt we didn't get the tempo right or intensity right and then we gave ourselves a mountain to climb.

“Second half we were in the ascendancy and had opportunities obviously but we didn't do enough with them.”

It wasn’t the first time Spurs have gone behind at home, they did the same before coming back to win 4-1 against Aston Villa last week, but the Australian felt the situations weren’t the same.

“They're all different sorts of scenarios,” he reflected. “When we went behind against Villa we were playing well. We weren't playing well today. So you've got to look at in isolation today, it was a different scenario for me.

“I don't think it was anything like last time. We gave ourselves too much of a deficit to try to overcome. Obviously second half we had the opportunities to do that, but we should never have been in that position.”

Spurs previously lost away against another of the division’s strugglers, Crystal Palace, 1-0, and Postecoglou accepted the blame for his side’s lacklustre displays against the Eagles and Blues.

“That's down to me,” he said. “That's my responsibility. The inconsistency we're having this year, ultimately it comes down to me and my approach and something I need to try and fix and see if I can help the players in that area.”

The former Celtic boss refused to blame his team’s busy schedule, Spurs having played away against Galatasaray in Istanbul on Thursday in the Europa League, losing 3-2.

“I shouldn't think so. I don't think so,” he said. “If we were seeing that we'd probably feel it more at the end of games and we're not feeling it at the end of games. We're finishing games strongly.

“We can't start games like that at this level and expect to overcome the gap that exists between us and the other teams.”

Postecoglou was, however, like his club’s fans, unhappy with Town’s second-half game management.

“Look, I think it's the way the Premier League is going,” he said. “It's pretty strategic now. You can almost look at your clock around the 20-minute mark and some player will go down, they'll all come over to coach and get instructions.

“It's funny, I always liked the Premier League because it wasn't like that. You would watch teams play in Europe and get frustrated by it, but now it's part of the game here as well.

“Nothing we can do about it. For us, if we want to mitigate those things because we don't do it and we want the game to be played, then we shouldn't give opportunities for the opposition to do that.”

Photo: Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge

bakerblue added 19:36 - Nov 10 I mostly like Ange - he’s refreshingly straightforward and gets his teams playing attractive attacking football, but he lacks grace when things don’t go his way. Some acknowledgement of our achievement wouldn’t go amiss.
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Daniel72 added 19:41 - Nov 10 I watched his interview and he gave no credit to Town... or blame to his own team... just said it was his responsibility... hardly worth an interview...but fair enough he seems ok...personally I'm glad we beat those north london types.. i don't have much time for them
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muhrensleftfoot added 19:52 - Nov 10 He doesn’t give us any credit but I don’t really mind. He’s totally fed up because his side lost a game they expected to win.
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Cafe_Newman added 22:17 - Nov 10 Fair enough comments from Ange. Spurs didn't play the ref as other clubs we've played recently have done. I don't want other managers to sing our praises, so all's good there too. Lovely result today from the boys and great away support from our fans too. We're nicely set up for a great pre-Christmas. COYB
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Radlett_blue added 22:40 - Nov 10 He was spot on. Spurs didn't play very well & didn't press us with the intensity which I expected. Having a Thursday trip to Europe won't have helped but in fairness to him, he didn't use that as an excuse.
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John_Grose added 10:26 - Nov 11 We have had some lovely praise from some of the managers of teams who have beaten us but I'd rather have a grumpy opposing manager moaning about our tactics if it means we've beaten them!
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bobble added 10:26 - Nov 11 Costa is always a fun manager for a while, but he,s bit of a 1 trick pony after awhile and can be found out tacticly ,hence spurs have lost the same amount of games as us...but still a great manager who wants to keep football exciting...
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ArnieM added 12:18 - Nov 11 Spurs didn't get out of their blocks, simply because WE didn't allow them too. It's about time Townbwete gi en dome credit by the media for how we are playing. We're discussed every game and rarely mentioned as many pundits only want to focus on the established PL side playing us. Hats off to Troy Deebey who DID focus on Town on MOTD. We were wrll worth our first win and in truth we should have had 3 or 4 wins this season already. Man Utd next. Bring it on

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SouthernTractors added 07:47 - Nov 12 That's normal for Fat Ange - used to watch his teams in A-League back in the day - is always grumpy when it doesn't go his way and was never complimentary about the other team (and usually looked to criticise the opposition in a back handed way when he lost).. And he's never had a Plan B...
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