Enzo Maresca said it was "completely wrong" to talk of a title challenge despite Chelsea cutting Liverpool’s lead at the Premier League summit to four points after a superb comeback win at Tottenham Hotspur.
The Blues could not have got off to a worse start at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, finding themselves 2-0 down inside 11 minutes as Dominic Solanke and Dejan Kulusevski took advantage of two unfortunate slips by Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella.
Jadon Sancho reduced the deficit soon after and they were fortunate midfielder Moises Caicedo escaped a red card for a shin-high tackle on Pape Sarr, which proved crucial as Caicedo was carelessly hacked down at the start of the second period by Yves Bissouma to give the visitors a penalty.
Cole Palmer tucked away the spot-kick just past the hour mark before he brilliantly created space to deliver a deflected cross for Enzo Fernandez to lash in the visitors’ third in the 73rd minute.
Sarr then gave away a needless penalty for an unnecessary barge on Palmer, who stepped up to convert a panenka penalty with six minutes left for his 12th goal of the season.
Spurs captain Son Heung-min did pull one back in stoppage time, but Chelsea held on to run out 4-3 winners to move up to second in the table.
“After the game, my message to the players was to be focused,” Maresca said. “To be focused in the day-by-day, in our session, in the next game on Thursday then Sunday, because if you start to think in two games, three games or in four games where we are? It’s completely wrong.
“The main focus has to be enjoy the day off, with family or friends, but when they come back go again 100 per cent, train well, go for the game and no more than that.
“We are happy that our fans are happy. They can dream, they can think everything because on the outside it is quite clear, also inside, the reality is that I said many times for me we are not ready to be there, but the important thing is we improve day by day.”
Spurs’ problems under Ange Postecoglou showed no sign of abating as they suffered back-to-back league defeats to drop to 11th in the table.
It was the second time this season Spurs had thrown away a two-goal lead after suffering a 3-2 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion on October 6.
Cristian Romero’s comeback lasted only 15 minutes and Brennan Johnson and Micky van de Ven were also forced off in the second half.
A crucial moment occurred midway through the first half when Caicedo caught Sarr on the shin, but Anthony Taylor only awarded a foul and a quick VAR review agreed with that decision.
“There’s a couple of decisions I thought today that definitely went against us,” Postecoglou said. “It almost feels like no-one is in control because everybody is scared to make a decision to overturn somebody else.
“Referees are scared to make decisions in case they get it wrong, VAR don’t want to intervene and I get that because you don’t want disruptions to the game. You just have to cop out.
“We worked awfully hard, but to give away two goals and you give away two penalties unnecessarily against a quality side anyway, you make things very difficult for yourself.”
