Ange Postecolgou has said his actions were misinterpreted after the Tottenham Hotspur head coach appeared to cup his ear and wave in the direction of the travelling Spurs fans when he thought Pape Matar Sarr had scored the equaliser in the team's 1-0 loss to Chelsea on Thursday.

The under-pressure coach made the gesture in the direction of the Spurs supporters while standing on the edge of his technical during the celebrations for the 70th-minute goal that was subsequently disallowed following a VAR check for a foul on Moisés Caicedo in the build-up.

Postecoglou's celebration-of-sorts came six minutes after some of the travelling supporters chanted "you don't know what you're doing" when Postecoglou introduced Sarr and Brennan Johnson in place of Lucas Bergvall and Wilson Odobert.

"It's incredible how things get interpreted," Postecolgou told a news conference. "We'd just scored. I just wanted to hear them cheer because I mean we've been through a tough time and I thought it was a cracking goal and I wanted them to get really excited because I felt at that point we could potentially go on and win the game. I just felt momentum was on our way.

"It doesn't bother me, it's not the first time they've booed my substitutions or my decisions. That's fine. They're allowed to do that, but we'd just scored a goal, just scored an equaliser. I was just hoping that we could get some excitement.

"People want to read into that, that somehow I'm trying to make a point about something. I said I felt we've been through a tough time, but I just felt there was a bit of a momentum shift there and if they get really behind the lads, I thought we had the momentum to finish on top of them."

The north London club are enduring a torrid season, with Thursday's loss at Stamford Bridge condemning Spurs to their 16th defeat of the season - the most they have suffered after 30 games of a Premier League campaign.