Tottenham paid the price for thinking Wolves were beaten, says Mauricio Pochettino

He also said he didn’t care that people would criticise his side as ‘bottlers’, insisting it is just the sort of defeat that can happen

Mauricio Pochettino said Tottenham paid the price for thinking their match against Wolves was won in the first half, as they then couldn’t raise the “energy” necessary to win the game, after they fell to a 3-1 defeat that torpedoed talk of a title challenge.

He also said he didn’t care that people would criticise his side as “bottlers”, insisting it is just the sort of defeat that can happen.

All of Spurs’ recent goalscoring form evaporated in a flat second-half display, as the manager admitted that an element of complacency might have come in. While not looking to overtly blame the intense Christmas schedule, Pochettino did point to similar surprise results elsewhere.

“In the second half, we started to feel maybe the game was over,” the Spurs manager admitted. “And when you feel the game is over, you start to… decide the wrong way, start to play too many long balls and then was difficult to recover the balls. We played more with the heart rather than play with the head and we started to spend a lot of energy and of course you need the energy in the end, you miss that. Very disappointed, like the players, but nothing to say. Some games can happen, this type of result, and now we need to move on and be sure we are ready for the next game.

“The players start to feel that it’s tough to play, and it’s 1-0, and every time you have space to go forward, every time you play in possession in the opposite half, the whole game we have the ball 60%, they were so deeper, they have players in front that can go fast, I think we dominate in possession the pitch, but then we miss that freshness to kill the game. Different things could have happened with Everton or Bournemouth but I think for me we killed the games, and then we managed properly the game. Today, with 1-0, I think the moment we concede the first goal, the team was down, start to feel the time, the fixture, everything was again, and was difficult to find the energy to win the game.”

Asked about predictable criticism of Spurs, Pochettino said: “I don’t care about what the people say, I cannot control what happens around us. If you see my comments always it’s about being humble, about talking with respect about the opposition and the competition and the other teams. We know very well, the experience is if you are not 100 per cent in every single game in the Premier League, it can happen. It’s not enough to play 60, 70 minutes. You need to play 95 minutes your best. Like today, we dropped a little bit our energy and our focus and in the last 20 minutes we conceded three goals. That can happen. It can happen to us, it can happen to Wolves, to Liverpool, to Manchester City, that’s why it’s so tough to win the Premier League because you need to be consistent. And today, for us, it’s a clear example if you are not consistent enough, with not only good quality during the game, but the right energy, it’s difficult to compete for these things.”

Wolves manager Nuno Espirito Santo meanwhile said he felt the opposite, that the win was suddenly on. His side scored three goals in 14 minutes after claiming their first as late as the 74th.

“At the beginning of the game I would have accepted a draw. Tottenham had fantastic momentum and this was a big challenge. But when we came back level we felt the game and the spaces were there for us and I felt we could keep going.

“I am very proud we showed character. It is something we try to insist on. What we had was two different halves. We had to stay in the game and then in the second half try to go for the game. The second half was fantastic. It was a very good performance. We are so happy – this is what we work for.”