Tottenham have been more open and lost by bigger margins this season, but last night’s defeat has to go down as their most alarming display under Ange Postecoglou.

If last month’s grim defeats to Fulham and Newcastle could be explained away as inevitable off-days for a developing team or a consequence of teething problems in Postecoglou’s high-risk approach, the 2-0 loss here felt like something different. Postecoglou’s side were not undone by the pitfalls of his football; they did not play his football at all.

On the eve of the game, the Spurs head coach admitted that “a majority” of his squad and staff still did not have “true belief” in his philosophy, and his words came to feel prophetic as his side went through the motions against an injury-ravaged Chelsea.

Spurs twice conceded from set-piece situations again, increasing the pressure on Postecoglou to prioritise a fix, and the Australian has never appeared more frustrated than in a first half spent screaming at his players to “stop passing backwards”, push up the pitch and be more aggressive out of possession.

With the notable exception of Cristian Romero, there was no sign of the high-octane pressing, ambitious passing and fluid, one-touch play which characterised Spurs’ first 10 games under Postecoglou before their campaign hit the rocks with the catastrophic 4-1 home defeat to Chelsea in the reverse fixture. Instead, Spurs were flat, sloppy and predictable.

“I feel like we’ve lost a bit of belief and conviction in our football — and that is on me to change that,” a visibly deflated Postecoglou said afterwards.

Perhaps most concerning for the head coach is the sense that his side has been gradually deteriorating to last night’s nadir. Since the 4-0 win over Aston Villa on March 10 — a result which looked likely to galvanise their season at the time — they have managed just seven points from a possible 21, wins over relegation-threatened Luton and Nottingham Forest and a draw at West Ham.

The question for Postecoglou is whether he can reverse their trajectory and restore faith in his game plan before the end of the season, let alone in time for Sunday’s visit to Liverpool, which now feels daunting.

Postecoglou has already tried rotating his squad, making five changes last night from Sunday’s defeat to Arsenal, with James Maddison among the players to be dropped, and there is little more tinkering he can realistically do.

“I thought we needed to freshen up the team,” he said. “I thought we needed some legs in the midfield against their mobile front four. Fair to say it didn’t work, though.”

A third defeat on the bounce was made all the more painful for Spurs because it came against their bitter rivals and ensured Mauricio Pochettino completed the double over his former club, the highlight of the season for Chelsea supporters.

Spurs have won this fixture just once in 16 years, when Pochettino was in the away dugout in 2018, but in spite of their performance and record at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea deserve credit for their display.

Pochettino went into the game without 14 senior players, leaving him to cobble together an XI and name a bench made up entirely of kids.

Chelsea still managed to finish the game in control, and while Spurs are looking less and less like a team in their manager’s image, the opposite is true of the Blues. Pochettino’s makeshift side were organised, committed and full of the same tireless running and adventurous wing-play which characterised his best teams at Spurs.

The sense that Chelsea had Tottenham’s number was best exemplified by left-back Marc Cucurella, who was outstanding in frustrating Brennan Johnson.

“I think for me, it is the best game,” Pochettino said. “It is the most happy I’ve been after. In the way that we play, the way we compete, that is what we wanted from the beginning of the season, what we want to apply to the team. We were so competitive. In this way we can grow, do better and improve in the areas.”

Like Arsenal on Sunday, Chelsea ruthlessly exploited Spurs’ vulnerability at set-pieces, Trevoh Chalobah ghosting into the box unmarked to head home Conor Gallagher’s free-kick in the first half.

Spurs rallied, as they so often do, but Nicolas Jackson reacted quickest when Cole Palmer’s free-kick came back off the crossbar, the forward nodding his fourth goal against Spurs this season into an empty net.

With injured players returning, Pochettino can now look ahead to the run-in with optimism and hope of a late surge into the top six.

Spurs’ top-four hopes are in tatters, though, and Postecoglou would surely love to end the season now to speed up reshaping his squad and winning back his players.