José Mourinho saw his side concede five for the first time under his management at White Hart Lane and his agitation afterwards felt predictable.
Days after he said there was a "campaign" against his men after seeing them denied a penalty at Southampton, he had issues here with referee Phil Dowd, seemingly relating to a handball by Jan Vertonghen when his side were 1-0 up.
No decision came and Tottenham then ran riot, while Mourinho was upset on the sidelines when Federico Fazio and Eden Hazard collided. Hazard later told Mourinho there was no foul, but that did little to temper his mood.
Asked on BT Sport to assess his side’s defending, Mourinho offered a cursory appraisal before drifting back to the subject of Dowd.
Defensive mistakes
“I think we made some defensive mistakes. it was not easy for my defenders to cope with a good [Nacer] Chadli and especially a good [Harry] Kane. But it was also very difficult for Tottenham defenders to cope with amazing Hazard and a good
Diego Costa
.
“I prefer just to focus on the result because if I focus on the crucial moments of the game you know what I have to say because you have exactly the same opinion as I have. You know at a crucial moment of the game, a result could go for 2-0.”
Asked if he wanted to say any more, he said: “I don’t.”
But he then added: “There is an action on Eden Hazard; Hazard honest as always tells me in his opinion it was not a foul or a red card, so that’s good. In spite of [the fact that] Mr Dowd is too slow to go with that ball, he was like 40 yards away, he made the right decision.”
Becoming predictable
Mourinho then said: “Every game is unpredictable but there are things in the game that are becoming predictable.” When asked what, he replied: “Forget it.”
With one final comment, Mourinho said: “Of course I hate to lose but again I prefer to lose like I did against Newcastle with a brilliant performance by [referee, Martin] Atkinson, an unlucky performance by us, a lucky performance by Newcastle, but a game where you lose because it’s football.”
Tottenham head coach Mauricio Pochettino insists he is not getting carried by his side's brilliant start to 2015.
“There was a great atmosphere out on the pitch, and for our supporters to. It was a great victory.
"I am not especially happy for myself, but for the team. It was an important three points for us to believe in our way. We deserved the victory and we were better than Chelsea. "
