A vexed Ange Postecoglou has rejected the notion that Tottenham Hotspur are playing "good football" in the wake of their 2-1 loss to West Ham United on Thursday evening.
The Lilywhites set a pair of unwanted Premier League records with their defeat to the Europa Conference League champions, who came from behind to subject Spurs to a fourth loss from five games.
Postecoglou's team were the dominant force in the opening stages and deservedly led through Cristian Romero, but they could not add to their advantage and were made to pay for their failure to do so in the second period.
A revitalised West Ham levelled the contest soon after the restart, as a Mohammed Kudus attempt bounced off of Romero and Ben Davies into the path of Jarrod Bowen, who could not miss from a few yards out.
David Moyes's men then completed their comeback in even more unorthodox circumstances, as Destiny Udogie sold Guglielmo Vicario short with a backpass, and under pressure from Bowen, the Italian could only punch the ball out to James Ward-Prowse, who hit the post with his first effort before tapping into an empty net from the rebound.
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By slumping to defeat against their London rivals, Tottenham have become the first team in Premier League history to take the lead in five successive games and not win any of them, as well as going 1-0 up in three straight home matches only to lose all three.
Since touching down in North London, Postecoglou has been heralded for bringing fast-paced, attacking football back to Tottenham after the pragmatic styles of Jose Mourinho and Antonio Conte failed to bear fruit.
However, speaking in his post-game press conference - as quoted by football.london - Postecoglou insisted that his side would have been 3-0 up at the break if they were playing "good football", saying: "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. I set teams up to win games and 1-0 at half-time was not a good performance from us.
"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.
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"At the moment we're just going through this spell where we're playing so-called good football but I don't see that. I said during the week our attacking play has a long way to go. In general we have a long way to go, and tonight was more evidence of that."
Postecoglou also shot down suggestions that his side's injury crisis was to blame for their recent plight and once again made reference to his side's "conviction", adding: "Like I said it's just not having that conviction in front of goal to finish teams off. As simple as that.
"There's no point in feeling sorry for ourselves, looking for a cuddle anywhere. 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're going through this spell where we'll play some decent football, great, but ultimately it's not what it's about. We're trying to play this football so we can win games and have success not to just put on a show."
Tottenham's misery was compounded when captain Son Heung-min was forced off in the closing stages of the match, but when asked about the attacker's Postecoglou simply replied that he was "not sure".
The North London outfit remain fifth in the table heading into Sunday's home clash versus seventh-placed Newcastle United, whom they are only one point clear of, while leaders Arsenal boast an unassailable nine-point advantage over Postecoglou's under-performing troupe.
Ben Knapton
