Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou has insisted that his side cannot view fourth place in the Premier League as a "prize" following their 3-0 loss to London rivals Fulham.
Thanks to last weekend's 4-0 crushing of 10-man Aston Villa, Spurs cut the gap to the Lions down to just two points with a game in hand, leaving them in control of their top-four destiny.
Had Tottenham come up trumps at Craven Cottage on Saturday evening, they would have risen into the Champions League places for at least a matter of hours before Unai Emery's side returned to action against West Ham United on Sunday.
However, the Lilywhites produced an extremely lacklustre performance at the home of their London rivals, where in-form Cottagers striker Rodrigo Muniz netted twice either side of Sasa Lukic's first goal for Fulham in a three-goal beating.
Sunday's loss marked the first time that Tottenham had failed to score in a Premier League game under Postecoglou, bringing an end to their remarkable 39-match scoring streak in the top flight of English football.
As a result, Villa are now back in charge of the race for fourth, but speaking to reporters in his post-match press conference - as quoted by football.london - Postecoglou reiterated that he is not aiming for fourth place and would be happy with missing out on Champions League football if he saw significant development within his squad.
"I don't see fourth as the prize. This club has finished fourth before. It's finished second before. You can throw all types of things at it, it's reached the Champions League final, you can throw all sorts of things but this club has achieved things. So fourth is not my end goal," Postecoglou said.
"I don't want to finish fourth if we haven't grown as a team and developed as a team. If nobody believes me then that's fine. Part of the narrative is to push you in these kind of positions where you think that fourth is some kind of achievement that gives you something for next year.
"It doesn't give you anything unless...fourth would be great if I feel like we're growing as a team and we're creating something that is going to bring us success next year. But fourth is not our goal. It hasn't been. It's not my goal.
"It certainly isn't my goal but I get it from the outside, particularly in the Premier League, it seems like people push you into that position where you succeed or fail just on an outcome. I just don't think that's how you get success. Success is built on, I think, more tangible stuff. If we finish fifth and if I think we've got a team to challenge next year then I won't be disappointed."
Tottenham have now fallen short at Craven Cottage twice this season, having been eliminated from the EFL Cup by Fulham on penalties in the second round, and defeat on Saturday also ended a seven-game Premier League winning streak at that particular stadium.
The Lilywhites therefore missed out on recording eight straight Premier League away wins against a single opponent for the first time in their history, and while Postecoglou was naturally left disappointed with his side's performance, he insisted that no alarm bells are ringing.
"No, it's not just worrying, it's just disappointing. I'd be worried if it was our fifth game in a row we did that so it's disappointing and we need to analyse it," the Australian added.
"That's where we're at with all of those things. You've got to try to treat it in isolation to make sure you don't fall into the trap of one way or another whether that's positive or negative, going down rabbit holes that don't exist."
Following the conclusion of the international break, Tottenham return to the home crowd on March 30 for a date with newly-promoted Luton Town, before visiting London rivals West Ham United on April 2. body check tags ::
