Micky van de Ven claimed Tottenham cannot be considered a top team until they stop making mistakes.
Van de Ven delivered a brutal assessment after their North London derby defeat and admitted it will be now be “difficult” to reach the Champions League next season. But van de Ven insisted Spurs are not worse than Arsenal – but they are just not as good at taking their chances.
Spurs defender Van de Ven said: “Of course you cannot concede three goals in the first half if you want to be a top team. It’s true that you cannot concede three goals at home if you want to be a top team and we have to work on it.
“The first half was not good from us, 3-0 it can’t happen in your own stadium in a big game like this and I think the second half we played really well, we pressed up high and we controlled the game but in the end it was not enough.
“I don’t think in the football part we are worse than Arsenal. I wouldn’t say we have that problem. The mentality from them is strong but I wouldn’t say that either. But you see their goals and they were ruthless, they took every chance that they had and I think that makes the difference.
“The first half was not good enough. Arsenal sat back deep, but when they countered they were ruthless, they scored almost every chance they had. I think that was missing from our first half in our group. It’s going to be difficult to qualify for the Champions League, of course but we have to show our best in the last couple of games in the season and see where it’s going to end.”
Tottenham have now conceded 14 goals from set pieces this season and it is clearly their Achilles heel as their promising season under Ange Postecoglou which saw them go top early in the campaign is in danger of fading away. Asked about their issues at set pieces post-match, Postecoglou explained: “It’s [about] understanding where you are as a football team.
“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. 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. 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.”
