Ange Postecoglou makes gesture to Tottenham fans after furious Chelsea decision

A frustrated Ange Postecoglou cupped his ears and waved to the Tottenham fans after Pape Matar Sarr thought he had scored an equaliser against Chelsea on Thursday.

After falling behind to Enzo Fernandez's 50th minute header, Postecoglou decided to make a double substitution in an attempt to get back into the game. Wilson Odobert, who had struggled to make impact, was replaced by Brennan Johnson, while Lucas Bergvall went off for Sarr.

The 3,000 travelling Spurs faithful made their feeling clear after Bergvall was substituted, booing Postecoglou's decision and chanting 'you don't know what you're doing'.

Six minutes later, Sarr felt he had put Tottenham level. The Senegal international dispossessed Moises Caidedo in midfield before driving forward and firing a 25-yard effort home. Robert Sanchez got a strong hand to the shot but couldn't keep it out, instead parrying into the roof of his own net.

The Tottenham players, staff and supporters went wild, Postecoglou had other ideas. Instead, the Aussie aimed a subtle gesture to the Spurs fans, cupping his ears and waving to the away section after they had booed and jeered his decision to substitute Bergvall and bring on Sarr.

Nevertheless, Tottenham's celebrations were cut short after referee Anthony Taylor, who was advised to go over to his pitch-side monitor by VAR, ruled that Sarr fouled Caicedo in the build-up.

A free-kick was awarded to Chelsea and Sarr was given a yellow card for his troubles, much to the frustration of Postecoglou, who bemoaned the decision to rule out the goal.

Speaking in a tense post-match interview, Postecoglou told Sky Sports: [VAR] is killing the game, mate. We saw the game last night, and if we’d had Jared Gillett [tonight’s VAR] there, we’d have a different outcome. If the referee needed to watch [the foul] six times, how is that clear and obvious?"

He was then asked if he thought the goal should have counted, and accused the interviewer, Patrick Davison, of "backing him into a corner". Davison said he thought it was a foul. "People like you will be happy, waiting on your couches for six minutes for ‘clear and obvious' decisions," Postecoglou said.

Tottenham had chances to equalise late on but were not able to break down a resolute Chelsea defence and suffered their 16th Premier League defeat of the season. It's a stark number for a Spurs side that sit 14th in the table on just 34 points from their 30 top-flight matches.

Postecoglou, fresh off the back of his subtle dig at the Tottenham fans, decided against going over to thank the travelling contingent for their support. Instead, his players went over to clap them.

Issuing his assessment on his side's performance, Postecoglou said: "It's a difficult night, a tight game and not an easy place to come. We had to work hard to stay in the game, we let in a disappointing goal then fought our way back into the game but weren't able to get anything out of it.

"It is still a work in progress, the first time we had the whole group in together and in the final third we could've been a bit cleaner with our football but for the most part we handled it quite well. It's a tough ask coming here, there was still enough there tonight to show the lads are getting back to the level we need."