Ange Postecoglou hits back at Spurs fans with gesture after the man he was booed for bringing on scored… only for goal to be disallowed in defeat at Chelsea

Ange Postecoglou appeared to take on Tottenham’s supporters who sang ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ at him by cupping his ear towards them when it looked like his substitute had scored their equaliser, though the Spurs boss claimed he not trying to be antagonistic.

The away fans had targeted Postecoglou for bringing on Pape Matar Sarr and Brennan Johnson for Wilson Odobert and Lucas Bergvall in the 64th minute. Sarr scored in the 69th, sparking the remarkable reaction from the Australian as he made a point of celebrating towards the Spurs end.

However, VAR Jarred Gillett sent referee Craig Pawson to his pitch-side monitor at Stamford Bridge where it was confirmed Sarr had fouled Moises Caicedo in the build-up as it was chalked off.

Chelsea beat their rivals with Cole Palmer returning from injury to set up Enzo Fernandez for his headed winner, taking them back up to fourth in the table.

Asked afterwards if he cupped his ear towards the Spurs supporters as if to underline to them that he knows better, Postecoglou said: ‘Jeez, mate, it’s incredible how things get interpreted.

‘We’d just scored. I just wanted to hear them cheer. We’ve been through a tough time and I thought it was a cracking goal and I wanted them to get really excited. I felt at that point we could potentially go on to win the game.’

Postecoglou looked incredulous when he was asked about the gesture in his interview

Pape Matar Sarr thought he had equalised but his goal was ruled out by VAR for a foul on Moises Caicedo

On the chanting aimed at him, Postecoglou said: ‘It doesn’t bother me. It’s not the first time they’ve booed by substitutions or my decisions. That’s fine. They’re allowed to do that. But we’d just scored a goal, an equaliser, I was hoping we could get some excitement.

‘It doesn’t affect me. If that’s what the fans feel, if they feel I’m not doing a good job, then they’ve got every right to express that. They’re the ones who will be here long after I’m gone.’

Postecoglou then went off on a rant about VAR in his post-match press conference, despite the foul from Sarr on Caicedo being so nasty that Chelsea wanted a red card shown.

Asked if it was a foul, Postecoglou said: ‘That’s the problem. Whether I think it’s a foul or not, what does it matter? What matters is VAR was called in for “clear and obvious errors”. How long did it take tonight? Six minutes, for a “clear and obvious error”. Who cares if it’s a foul or not.

‘What’s the point of having a referee then? “Clear and obvious” to me is you go to the screen, you see it, “Oh my God, I missed that”. Not me, because I’m very vocal about it, but everyone accepts it. It’s going to be referee by AI very soon. We may as well dispense of the players at some point.

‘Someone will come up with a genius way of having a game of football with no participants. Referees aren’t refereeing. If anyone believes when VAR was brought in, that we would be sitting around for six minutes with a microscope, it’s irrelevant if it was a foul or not.’

Meanwhile, Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said this victory was vital as they push for a top-four finish, saying: ‘If we want to become an important team, we need to win in a dirty way, an ugly way. Overall, it was a very good performance. We deserved to win.’