Ange Postecoglou left with egg on his face as Tottenham stars lose faith | OneFootball

A 16th league defeat of the season and fourth on trot to Chelsea leaves Ange Postecoglou hanging by a thread

Enzo Fernandez’s header shortly after the interval earned the Blues a deserved 1-0 win and condemned Spurs to a 16th defeat in 30 league games this season.

Moises Caicedo had a brilliant volley to make it 2-0 disallowed by the VAR for offside before Spurs had a goal of their own ruled out, leading to the flashpoint between Postecoglou and the away end.

Here are three Spurs talking points from the match…

Ange Postecoglou did not approach the away fans

Zac Goodwin/PA Wire

Postecoglou clashes with Spurs fans

This felt like the night when Postecoglou’s relationship with Spurs fans soured.

Postecoglou has clashed with individuals and small groups of supporters more than once this season, notably after the 1-0 defeat at Bournemouth in December, but at Stamford Bridge, tensions between the head coach and travelling fans escalated.

But within six minutes of his introduction, Sarr thought he had levelled the game with a fierce 30-yard strike which crept through Robert Sanchez in the Chelsea goal.

A defiant Postecoglou turned and cupped his ear in the direction of the away supporters.

There was, though, a twist. Sarr had won the ball from Caicedo with a high challenge on the Ecuadorian’s knee and the VAR advised referee Craig Pawson to review the decision at his pitch-side monitor.

Pawson disallowed the goal and booked Sarr – to the frustration of both Postecoglou and Enzo Maresca, who plainly wanted the Spurs midfielder sent off.

Postecoglou was left with egg on his face, and it was striking that at full-time, he did not go over to acknowledge the away end, instead hovering around the centre of the pitch and occasionally acknowledging his players as they walked past.

Asked after the game about the incident, Postecoglou insisted he was merely trying to hear the fans more and encourage more celebrations.

By contrast, they have largely remained neutral on Postecoglou during games – neither chanting his name, nor calling for his head – but you wonder if that will start to change after this grim evening in west London.

Heung-min Son almost equalised in the final minute

Getty Images

Spurs stars lose belief

And it is not just the fans who appear to be losing faith in Postecoglou.

For the majority of their dreadful winter, Spurs looked like a side short of fit players but still committed to what they were being asked to do by the manager.

As they lurched from one poor result to the next, often with barely enough senior players to make up an XI, Spurs kept trying to play Ange-ball.

Now, though, the opposite is increasingly true.

Postecoglou has a largely fit squad – and he was able to name his strongest XI at Stamford Bridge, with the exception of Dejan Kulusevski – but Spurs are playing like a team completely shorn of conviction in their manager’s football.

For the first 70 minutes at Chelsea, they were abject in another dismal display which flew in the face of the suggestion that they would only improve once their injured players returned.

They enjoyed the occasional flash of promise against Chelsea but only when an individual – usually Bergvall, James Maddison or Heung-min Son – produced a moment of quality.

They largely resembled 11 individuals – with no game-plan, cohesion or structure.

It was so easy for Chelsea to play through Postecoglou’s flimsy side, with usually one pass enough for the hosts to be running at Spurs’ back line.

If Jadon Sancho, who forced a brilliant save from Guglielmo Vicario towards the end of the first half, had been willing to shoot sooner, Chelsea would surely have been out of sight by the break.

It was to Spurs’ credit that they rallied in the final 20 minutes, with Son going close to an equaliser by forcing a sprawling but comfortable save from Sanchez.

Chelsea should already have had the game wrapped up by that point, however, and Spurs’ late push was arguably down to the Blues’ own frailties and lack of conviction, as much as any real sense of purpose.

Ange Postecoglou is expected to be sacked

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Where next for Postecoglou?

On the one hand, Postecoglou can thank his lucky stars that next up for Spurs is a home game against rock-bottom Southampton on Sunday.

Spurs should have enough to see off Saints, even with a rotated side, but on the flip side, the fixture feels like a lose-lose for the manager.

Thrashing such a sorry opponent is not going to change much in terms of mood or momentum and there is a genuine possibility that a low-confidence Spurs could slip up – having already lost at home to Leicester and Ipswich this season.

Ultimately, what matters for Postecoglou and Spurs, though, is their Europa League quarter-final tie against Eintracht Frankfurt, with the first leg at home next Thursday, which could still dramatically change the outlook of their season.

It is, though, getting harder and harder to imagine a positive outcome for Postecoglou’s side against the Germans, given the way their season is plummeting.