Ange Postecoglou called on wasteful Tottenham to not feel sorry themselves after they suffered a fourth defeat in five matches with a 2-1 home loss to West Ham.
Injury-hit Spurs appeared on course to claim a first win since October 27 at half-time after Cristian Romero returned from suspension to score in the 11th minute.
David Moyes’ side produced an impressive second-half turnaround, with Jarrod Bowen netting on the road again after 52 minutes before James Ward-Prowse fired a 74th-minute winner after an error by Tottenham defender Destiny Udogie.
It extends Spurs’ winless run to five matches despite them taking the lead in each of those fixtures, which is a new Premier League record but Postecoglou urged them to bounce back on Sunday when Newcastle visit north London.
“There’s no point in feeling sorry for ourselves, looking for a cuddle anywhere,” Postecoglou insisted.
“There’s only one way to change our circumstances and that is to come here on Sunday and put in a performance. Not just play good football but go out there and show some conviction about ourselves as a team.
“Sometimes we can disguise how we’re going by playing some nice stuff but like I said from day one, that’s not what I’m about.
“I want to win and that’s why I came to this football club and that’s the message.
“We’ve still got a long way to go, I’ve said that from the start. We’re still right at the beginning of what we need to create and days like today just give me further evidence and fuel of how much we need to do.”
Spurs produced another impressive first-half display, which has become a trademark during the past month but they only had Romero’s goal to show for it after several openings were squandered, while Lo Celso’s late cross was deflected onto the woodwork by West Ham captain Kurt Zouma.
It was a different story in the second period after the Hammers levelled through Bowen, but Tottenham substitute Richarlison did send a free header wide from six yards in the 70th minute when the game was finely-poised at 1-1.
Postecoglou admitted: “I think it’s another game where we’ve dominated a game of football and haven’t turned our dominance into something more tangible and kept the opposition in the game.
“I thought we were really poor in both boxes tonight – both with our finishing and both goals were terrible to concede.
“Us being good means us being 3-0 up. This isn’t about us playing good football, it’s about us winning games of football. That’s what I’ve said from the start.
“1-0 at half-time was not a good performance. A good performance would have been 3-0 or 4-0 up, as was the case against Villa, and when you don’t, and give up goals you shouldn’t like today, then you get what you deserve.”
West Ham boss David Moyes was delighted with his team after they earned a fifth win in six games with Bowen netting on the road again.
The England international only returned from a knee injury in Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace and while he missed a late chance in that draw, he bounced back in this derby to score in a seventh consecutive Premier League away game.
“Jarrod was a little bit off it at the weekend and he’d been out three or four weeks, so he looked a bit rusty,” Moyes reflected.
“When it fell to him, I thought, ‘oh wow he’s got himself another goal,’ and
obviously I want Jarrod to keep doing it for us, but also as long as he keeps doing it, he will keep in Gareth’s (Southgate) mind as well because he’s someone who can play forward or wide and score goals.
“In a competition this summer where you are going to need people to score goals, hopefully Jarrod will be part of that, but as long as he keeps scoring for me at the moment that’s the most important thing.”
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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