Antonio Conte tore into his ‘selfish, scared’ Tottenham players after watching them give up a 3-1 lead to draw 3-3 with rock-bottom Southampton.
Tottenham missed out on the chance to move up to third in the Premier League after James Ward-Prowse’s stoppage-time penalty earned struggling Southampton a dramatic 3-3 draw.
Spurs had looked set to clinch all three points at St Mary’s after maiden strikes by Pedro Porro and Ivan Perisic were sandwiched by Harry Kane’s 23rd goal of the campaign.
Ruben Selles’ bottom-of-the-table side had scored only twice in their previous five league appearances but showed the same fight that saw them recently take points off Chelsea and Manchester United to come back from 3-1 down to boost their survival hopes.
Ward-Prowse’s late penalty, after Pape Sarr had fouled Ainsley Maitland-Niles in the area, added to second-half efforts by Che Adams and Theo Walcott to earn Saints a share of the spoils.
Conte was furious with his players’ performance and refused to bite his lip after the game.
“I’m really upset because this is not the first time,” he told BBC. “And I think today I can tell you that this is an upset because we are winning 3-1 and 15 minutes to go and I think you have to win. Instead we showed this another time, things started to improve last season but we lost the characteristic of last season. I don’t want to talk about the technical aspect, the spirit is missing.
“We are not a team. We are a team that everyone is thinking of himself. When you are in this way that can happen, you lose against Sheffield United and drop the FA Cup and with AC Milan and to finish that run you’re winning 3-1 and the last 15 you are able to give them the possibility to come back. I don’t see the sense of responsibility of the players.
“Now it’s difficult – we are working hard with this group and to move in the right direction. We are going behind, I see a lot of negative situations and a lot of selfish situations and players that I don’t like. I know the way to beat teams, in the past I beat a lot of teams, winning teams. Now instead we are going behind, no one is interested in this.
“I have great frustration about this because me and the staff stay every day to think of a way to improve. Honestly, it’s time I have to take responsibility for me, the staff, the club but also the players.
“The players go onto the pitch, I’m the coach, OK I take the responsibility, the players have to take…
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