Tottenham slumped to their sixth defeat in their last nine Premier League games as Arsenal came from behind for a 2-1 north London derby victory on Wednesday.
ARSENAL 2-1 TOTTENHAM - Highlights, recap & analysis
Arsenal’s first goal left Ange Postecoglou, his players and Tottenham fans frustrated as the Gunners were incorrectly awarded a corner kick after the ball came off Leandro Trossard after Pedro Porro blocked his cross.
Gabriel Magalhaes (via Dominic Solanke’s deflection and own goal) scored from the ensuing set piece and left Spurs deflated following another unlucky break in a season full of them.
Trossard scored four minutes later and Arsenal could have added a few more before the full-time whistle if not for new goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky making a couple of big saves in the second half.
Ange Postecoglou reaction — What did Tottenham boss say after north London derby defeat to Arsenal?
“Nowhere near good enough, especially in the first half. We were too passive. We let Arsenal dictate the game. Second half was a little better, but nowhere near good enough. Not acceptable,” Postecoglou said. “Ultimately the responsibility lies with me and how I prepare the players. I’m more interested in how we play and we were not anywhere near the levels today.”
“Of course they [defeats] hurt me. Not acceptable. Too many losses this year,” Postecoglou added. “Too many games getting away from us. It needs to stop. No other way of looking at it. If you give up now, there’s no point. Right now we have a big game against Everton this weekend. That’s our focus.”
Speaking to reporters after the game, Postecoglou was asked about his comments about needing to stop the defeats. How do you do that?
“You’ve got no choice. There’s no magic cure. You’ve got to get up tomorrow, work hard and go into Sunday and prepare to go into battle and turn around our fortunes and our season,” Postecoglou said. “There’s nothing magical that’s going to change it. There’s always reasons for all these things to happen. The reality is that our results and our form in the league has been nowhere near good enough. That needs to change.”
Postecoglou was also asked about the fact that Arsenal’s first goal came from a corner that shouldn’t have been, but he didn’t want to put blame elsewhere. Did it hit Trossard last and should have been a goal kick?
“Well it did. It did but I don’t want to talk about referees. I have got to take responsibility for my team and I let the referees take responsibility for theirs. It wasn’t a corner,” Postecoglou said. “It’s how things are going for us at the moment. But that aside, we weren’t anywhere near the level we needed to be in that first half in such a big game. We have got to understand that what we can control is the first thing we need to focus on.”
Asked about Arsenal’s winning goal and if he was frustrated with it, Postecoglou didn’t pull any punches.
“I think that second goal is endemic of our whole first half. Irrespective of everything else, like I said, we just didn’t play anywhere near the identity I want us to be,” Postecoglou said. “We are an aggressive team with and without the ball, we have shown that. We showed that seven days ago against Liverpool. Tonight, especially in that first 45, we were way too passive and that’s not acceptable.”