08 December 2023 , 06:16
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Tottenham captain Son Heung-Min admitted Spurs have gone “soft” after crashing to a fourth defeat in five games.
Spurs were booed off at the final whistle, having slipped from being five points clear at the top of the table to finding themselves out of the Champions League places. West Ham staged a sensational turnaround as Jarrod Bowen and James Ward-Prowse scored for the visitors in a 2-1 win which confirmed that the Ange Postecoglou bubble has burst.
Son said: “Losing that game is unacceptable. We have got the lead five times in a row now. West Ham are always tough to play against but we were soft. In the Premier League, you don't know what will happen in the end. You have to kill a game. It's unacceptable. Players have to take responsibility – the fans don't deserve this.
“You have to play with more energy, especially at home. Whether we deserve it or not, we have to move on and bounce back. It's disappointing for the fans.”
Spurs boss Postecoglou was brutally honest about his team’s display, even though Cristian Romero had put his team ahead and they had dominated the first half.
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Postecoglou said: “The two goals were terrible for us to concede. I’ve always said we’ve got a long way to go and tonight was more evidence of that. It was not a good performance from us in the first half. A good performance means we are 3-0 up at half time.
“We are going through a spell where people are saying it’s good football but I don’t see that. I see us playing without conviction and not putting the ball in the net. We’ve played some decent football in this spell. OK, great. But I want to win. I want success not just to put on a show. No-one is going to give us a cuddle. We’ve got to pick ourselves up.”
James Ward-Prowse scored the winner for West Ham following a dreadful Spurs mistake (Getty Images)West Ham boss David Moyes added: “Huge performance because of the quality of the opposition. We were up against it tonight. We had to dig in. Thankfully we just about scraped it.
"We gained a bit of confidence once we got some passes. We wanted to get after them a bit more but by the same breath we were cautious about them picking us off. We are a team who can give some of the good teams a bloody nose, we have that in us.”
Defeat dropped Tottenham down to fifth in the Premier League table, level on points with Manchester United, while West Ham are just three points behind in ninth. Spurs will attempt to turn the tide when they face Newcastle on Sunday and the Hammers have a trip across London to face Fulham.