Tottenham boss Thomas Frank defended Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence after they appeared to ignore him and walk down the tunnel following a 1-0 home defeat to Chelsea.
Joao Pedro struck in the 34th minute to help Chelsea inflict more pain on toothless Spurs with a fifth consecutive victory over their London rivals and a 10th win in 12 meetings in all competitions.
Frank’s team were booed off after they produced only one shot on target all game, three in total and recorded their lowest ever xG (expected goals) figure of 0.05 since Opta records started in the 2012-13 campaign.
To compound another miserable match at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with this a third home loss in seven matches under the former Brentford head coach, an eye-catching exchange occurred moments after full-time.
Stand-in captain Van de Ven and Spence headed towards the tunnel and despite Frank seemingly telling them to thank the home support, they walked past the Danish boss who stared in their direction before he turned to applaud the crowd.
“I think that is one of the small issues. We have Micky van de Ven and Djed Spence who are doing everything they can. They perform very well so far this season and everyone is frustrated. We do things in a different way, so I don’t think it is a big problem,” Frank said.
“All the players are of course frustrated. They would like to do well, they would like to win, they would like to perform well, so I understand that.
“I think it is about, which is difficult, to be consistent in good times and in bad times. That is why I went around to the fans as I did. It is more fun when we win, I can tell you that.”
This painful loss extended Spurs’ horrendous record against Chelsea and the end margin could have been greater.
Pedro punished slack home defending – with Spence, Xavi Simons and Van de Ven culpable – to break the deadlock 11 minutes before half-time, but he could have walked off with a hat-trick after fine saves throughout by Guglielmo Vicario.
Tottenham finally mustered a response to the opener at the end of first half when Pape Sarr teed up Mohammed Kudus, but Robert Sanchez was equal to his curled effort.
Spurs quickly ran out-of-ideas after the break and despite multiple changes by Frank, they failed to test Sanchez again and boos greeted full-time.
Asked if he understood that reaction, Frank said: “Yes, 100 per cent. We all sense the frustration and the emotions. That is part of football.”
Quizzed on Tottenham’s xG figure of 0.05, Frank conceded it hurt.
“I would say that of course hurts massively. I have never been in charge of a team that created that little in one game. That of course I will look into,” Frank acknowledged.
This was only Chelsea’s third clean sheet in 12 matches, but boss Enzo Maresca declined to talk about being able to limit Tottenham.
“In any case I am happy with the 1-0, happy with the three points and especially because we kept the clean sheet, but it is something we need for the future. We know we are a team in the end who will score goals, but we need to do better defensively,” Maresca said.
“I think the performance was very good. On the ball and off the ball. For sure the way we press was very important.
“I also feel our game against Liverpool was very good. We know that almost always we score goals, but we need to try and concede less goals.”
