Ange Postecoglou suffers pre-Rangers setback as pressure intensifies on Spurs boss and injury crisis deepens

The former Celtic boss is coming under increasing pressure as Spurs struggle to put together consistent form with a second successive loss leaving the North Londoners languishing 11th in the Premier League table. Spurs are also in the midst of an injury crisis which deepened further as Cristian Romero’s comeback lasted only 15 minutes and Brennan Johnson and Micky van de Ven were also forced off in the second half.

Postecoglou now returns to Glasgow for the first time since departing Celtic 18 months ago to face former Old Firm rivals Rangers in the Europa League on Thursday night. The Greek-Australian enjoyed a two-year period of success at Parkhead, winning five trophies out of six including a domestic treble in his second season in charge. His position at Tottenham is now the subject of debate with former Spurs midfielder Jamie Redknapp admitting he did not know where the club would go next after swapping the pragmatism of the likes of Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho for their current manager's sense of adventure.

Sky Sports pundit Redknapp said: “For a Tottenham fan, they had Conte, who was pragmatic; they had Mourinho – didn’t work; they had Nuno [Espirito Santo] – didn’t work here. Now you’ve got to the complete opposite [end of the] scale and for Tottenham fans for 10, 15 games last season, they thought, ‘This is it, we’ve found it. This guy is going make us play beautiful football, expansive, we’re going to win’.

“You’ve gone from one extreme to the other and it feels like we’ve said the same thing for the last 10 years of coming to watch Tottenham. I just don’t know really which way they’re going to go next because if you sack him, then where else do you go?”

Things started well for Spurs as they led 2-0 inside 11 minutes after capitalising on two slips by Marc Cucurella to score through Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski. Jadon Sancho reduced the deficit soon after and Chelsea were fortunate midfielder Moises Caicedo escaped a red card for a shin-high tackle on Pape Sarr, which proved crucial as Caicedo was carelessly hacked down at the start of the second period by Yves Bissouma to give the visitors a penalty.

Cole Palmer tucked away the spot-kick just past the hour mark before he brilliantly created space to deliver a deflected cross for Enzo Fernandez to lash in the visitors’ third in the 73rd minute. There was still time for Palmer to win another penalty and convert with a panenka with six minutes left for his 12th goal of the campaign.

Spurs captain Son Heung-min did pull one back in stoppage time, but Chelsea held on to earn a ninth league win in 15 under Enzo Maresca to move clear of Arsenal and Manchester City as Liverpool’s nearest challengers.

Postecoglou admitted the defeat was difficult to take after seeing his side squander a two-goal lead. Speaking on Sky Sports, he said: "Look, it’s a sore one, for sure, it’s painful. We started the game really well, then we lose Romero. Nothing’s run smoothly for us and we have to reshuffle, and then they get a goal in that moment. But I still thought we had some big moments to get a third and finish the game off.

“The second half was a bit of a ding-dong for quite a while. They obviously scored, but then we had a big chance at 2-2 with Sonny and we don’t take it, and then the two penalties weren’t great from our behalf, [we need] just a bit more discipline in the box.”