Spurs stuttering finish to this season continued today, with the North London outfit slipping to a 1-0 defeat away to Bournemouth.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side began brightly and forced 19-year-old debutant Mark Travers into a couple of excellent stops in the Bournemouth goal.
However, the game was turned on his head just before half-time when Son Heung-Min was shown a red card was pushing Jefferson Lerma to the ground.
Things would get worse for Spurs just two minutes after the break, when half-time substitute Juan Foyth was shown a straight red for a reckless lunge on Jack Simpson.
Despite their two-man advantage Bournemouth failed to create too many clear cut chances and the game seemed destined to end in deadlock, until Cherries centre-back Nathan Ake won the game for the home side with an injury-time winner.
Today’s loss is Spurs eight in their last 12 games, although Pochettino insisted his team would have ben happy to go into the last game of the season with their top four destiny in their own hands had it been offered to them at the start of the season.
“I don’t think too much, we can’t talk too much, we just need to prepare for next game,” Pochettino told Sky Sports.
“The first 40 minutes we played well and created chances but didn’t score. Then we know football can be cruel, they scored in the last minute. We need to move on.
“Nothing to say [on Son’s red card], I respect the decision of the referee. My honest opinion is we have to accept the decision of the referee, you cannot change the decision.
“Again, we need to respect the decision of the referee. It was unlucky for us. Nothing to say. With nine players we defended well and made a good game.
“We are third, we are competing for the top four and in the semi-finals of the Champions League. If you look back at first game of the season, to be in position we are in today, we’d be happy.”
Spurs remain in third despite today’s defeat and face Ajax in the Champions League semi-final second leg next Wednesday.
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