The Argentine refuted suggestions Spurs lost because of Wembley and pointed to their strong performance as an argument against that theory

Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino felt Chelsea’s clinical edge in front of goal was the difference at Wembley today as the Premier League champions claimed a 2-1 victory.

Marcos Alonso scored twice to cancel out Michy Batshuayi’s own-goal and make sure there was more disappointment for Spurs at the national arena.

When asked about Tottenham’s new home and whether it was a problem or if the pitch size made a different, Pochettino was relaxed.

“Please. We need to stop,” laughed the Spurs manager. “I think today it was clear if you love and watch football that Wembley wasn’t the problem or the size of the pitch.

“I thought we played better and created chances to score, but that is football and sometimes you have to accept another team is more clinical in front of goal.

“The opportunities we created we didn’t score, but the most important thing is the performance because it is only the beginning of the season. There are a lot of games to play and if we play this way then we should go on to win a lot of games.”

Pochettino was quizzed about what he thought of Chelsea’s tactics after the Blues played what looked a 5-3-1-1 formation.

The Tottenham boss admitted the champions played differently to normal, but didn’t feel they were overly negative.

“I am just trying to explain how the game today went. I don’t think Chelsea are a defensive team,” said Pochettino.

“They played different today to the normal way they play and it is true they tried to defend deeper and hit on the counter-attack with (Alvaro) Morata and Willian.

“But I am so pleased with the performance. Of course I am very disappointed with the result, yet the way we played I am happy and we are working hard from the beginning of the season and the performance was good.”

Come the full time whistle, Chelsea’s clinicalness in front of goal was the difference with their only two shots on target creating both their goals.

It was frustrating for Spurs, but Pochettino insisted he was satisfied because they had played well.

He added: “I am not frustrated. I am disappointed because we deserved more and our performance was good. I am happy with the performance of the team. I think we dominated the game and we were the team who created the most chances.

“The only problem was that they were clinical in front of goal and the two times they had a shot they scored twice and for us it was difficult to score.”

If Spurs had been better in the final third then they would have registered a better result at Wembley, but they weren’t and so Tottenham’s poor record at the national arena continues. It has to change soon.