Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has reacted following his side's 3-2 defeat to Arsenal in the north London derby on Sunday, branding the performance from his side 'unacceptable'.
Spurs started slowly, with the Gunners racing into a 3-0 lead by half time after an own goal from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was followed by strikes from Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz.
And though Tottenham netted through Cristian Romero and Son Heung-min, it wasn't enough as they crashed to defeat.
Postecoglou has now spoken out following the contest in the capital.
Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has criticised his players following the club's nightmare defeat to Arsenal
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And the Tottenham boss criticised the way they performed in the first half, branding their display 'unacceptable'.
"It is disappointing," he told Sky Sports.
"From our perspective, we allowed them way too easy access to our goal, they only got there three or four times and they scored three goals in the first half.
"It’s just not acceptable and we paid a price for it against a very good team.
"We showed resilience and fought back, but we had to because there was no other choice.
"We couldn’t come out here in the second-half and not give our supporters at least a little bit of hope.
"We did that. But still very disappointing.
"We are still not as resilient as we can be, particularly in a transition moment or a set-piece.
"We allow far too easy access to our goal.
"They’re a good side and they’re going to punish you if you don’t show that steel protecting your own goal and we didn’t today."
In his post-match press conference, Postecoglou singled out Romero for praise.
"He was outstanding," he said.
"He's a World Cup winner and I just need to get some of what's in him into some of the others."
And Postecoglou insists Tottenham need to improve in many areas, not just when it comes to defending set-pieces.
"If I thought fixing defensive set pieces was the answer to us bridging the gap then I'd put all of my time and effort into that," he said.
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Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou hailed Cristian Romero after his side's defeat to Arsenal on Sunday
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"But that's not where we're at.
"For us it's about, when I was focused on the details of, not just set pieces but a lot of moments in games where we don't sense that you give good opposition the time and the space to do things then they're going to hurt you.
"I think they maybe had four attempts on goal in the first half and they conceded three.
Tottenham were second best to Arsenal as they slumped to defeat in Sunday's north London derby clash
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"I don't think it's about one part of it, I think it's a bigger, broader picture than that, but our defensive set pieces for those two were very poor.
"But there's a lot more than that to fix."
