Mauricio Pochettino admits he “crossed the line” after his furious reaction towards referee Mike Dean following Tottenham’s 2-1 defeat to Burnley.
The Spurs boss confronted the official at full-time at Turf Moor with his assistant Jesus Perez joining him to dispute a number of decisions – primarily the call to award the home team a corner, rather than a goal kick, which saw Chris Wood break the deadlock.
As Pochettino began to retreat, Dean appeared to say something to the Spurs boss, sparking another volatile reaction. The Argentine would not confirm what was said between the pair but concedes his reaction was out of line.
“Now that we are relaxed, it’s difficult to explain, we cannot blame nobody, we have to blame ourselves. I don’t like to complain too much,” Pochettino told the BBC. “With the emotion and the disappointment, maybe I crossed a little bit the line.
“What happened on the pitch happened on the pitch. We made a few mistakes, we conceded two goals and I have nothing to say. We don’t deserve the defeat but that is football and we keep going.
“It’s important to understand for us it was an important game. I believed before the game it would be decisive if we wanted to be contenders.
“I knew if we lost it will be difficult to be a contender. We are disappointed, the gap can be bigger, there are a lot of games to play but my mind was to win the three points and put the pressure on. We didn’t and we can only blame ourselves.”
Harry Kane, returning from injury, cancelled out the controversial opener to equalise for Spurs, who could have moved to within two points of leaders Manchester City and Liverpool.
But Ashley Barnes put away the winner for the Clarets seven minutes from time.
Dean could be seen telling Pochettino to “go away” as he vented his anger within a few inches of his face on the pitch.
After Pochettino eventually calmed down, he embraced Burnley defender Phil Bardsley, exchanging a few words before congratulating other players from the home side.
