Every word Ange Postecoglou said on gesture to Tottenham fans, VAR and disappointing Chelsea goal

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Ange Postecoglou has spoken to the media following Tottenham's 1-0 Premier League defeat against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Spurs remain 14th in the Premier League table but they have now lost 16 of their 30 league fixtures this term.

The visitors were rather lucky to not go one goal behind at Stamford Bridge inside the first minute as Micky van de Ven's clearance hit Nicolas Jackson and struck the post. Chelsea did threaten on a number of occasions in the opening 45 minutes, most notably through Jadon Sancho's effort that Guglielmo Vicario tipped over the crossbar.

Chelsea did open the scoring shortly after the restart as Enzo Fernandez powered home a header from Cole Palmer's cross after finding himself in acres of space. Moises Caicedo also found the net with a volley from the edge of the box but it was ruled out for offside following a VAR check.

Tottenham were also on the end of a VAR call after Pape Matar Sarr's strike from distance was disallowed for a foul on Caicedo. Here is every word the 59-year-old had to say during his time with the media after the game:

How do you assess the performance?

Yeah, tough game, always is when you come here obviously. It was tight, we had to fight hard to stay in it, which I think we did fairly well. Obviously Vic pulled off a big save, we had to defend pretty strongly at times. Always a threat going the other way, maybe should have been a little bit more clinical in that front third. But I thought we were in the game.

Then conceded a really poor goal, which we've been doing too often, that's costing us. And that's really disappointing. But I thought our response from that was really good, positive. We did equalise and then that got ruled out, and then we had a couple of big chances towards the end. So yeah, really disappointed to not get something out of the game.

Can you just talk to us about your thinking when you cupped your ear to the fans after Sarr scored?

Jesus mate, it's incredible how things get interpreted. 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.

You don't feel that's in danger of alienating the fans?

You know what, I am at such a disconnect with the world these days, that who knows, maybe you're right. I don't know. But that's not what my intention was.

Do you think it was a foul?

But see that's the problem, whether I think it's a foul or not, what does it matter? What matters is, VAR was called in for clear and obvious errors. I’ve said this a few times already. We all sat on our couches last night and watched an incident where I reckon if I did a straw poll and asked: ‘After the first replay what did you think?’ How long did it take tonight? Six minutes. For a clear and obvious error.

Who cares if it was a foul or not? There were so many incidents out there. What does it matter? What’s the point of having a referee then? Clear and obvious means you go to the screen, standing around for six minutes. Not me, because I’m very vocal on it, we all accept it. It’s going to be refereed by AI soon. Like I said, we might as well dispense with the players at some point when some genius comes up with a game with no participants at some point. Referees aren’t refereeing.

If anyone believes when VAR was brought in we would be sitting around for six minutes with a microscope. It’s irrelevant if it’s a foul. It’s totally irrelevant. Then they will say they came to there with decision. But that’s irrelevant. Jarrod Gillet was on VAR tonight but maybe if he was on VAR last night maybe he would have come to a different outcome.

I don’t like it, mate, I’ve never liked it, I don’t see how it’s benefitted our game, I don’t think anyone would have complained if they went with the referee’s decision because you get some good, you get some bad and you get on with it and the game finishes in 93 or 94 minutes and the game flows rather than us all sitting around waiting. I think that's one thing that won't get misinterpreted by me, I'm pretty consistent with my stance on it.

Fans shouted you don’t know what you’re doing, does that hurt?

It just doesn’t affect me. If that’s what the fans feel and if they feel I’m not doing a good job then they’ve got every right to express it. They pay their hard earned, they follow the club and they’ll be here long after I’m gone. It doesn’t affect me.

What I focus on are the things I can control. I can’t control fans, I can't control but many things but I can control our football, the way we play and the way we conduct ourselves and that’s what I concentrate on.

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