Tottenham captain Hugo Lloris labelled his side’s performance as ‘embarrassing’ after their 6-1 mauling at Newcastle.
The Magpies raced into a 5-0 lead after just 21 minutes of play at St James’ Park thanks to doubles from Jacob Murphy and Alexander Isak and another strike from Joelinton.
Callum Wilson chipped in with a goal in the second half after Harry Kane had reduced the arrears shortly after the interval.
Lloris, who was replaced at half time after picking up an injury, fronted up to the cameras after the final whistle and issued an apology to the Spurs fans that made the long journey north.
“It’s very embarrassing and the first thing is probably we should apologise to the fans who travelled and the fans who watched the game,” Lloris told Sky Sports.
“Obviously, we didn’t show a great face today. I think we could not match the performance of the Newcastle players.
“We were late in all aspects of the game and we completely missed the first part of the game and obviously the second half is another story. But it’s really painful today.”
The Frenchman refused to be drawn on whether Spurs’ defensive change from a back-five to a back-four was the catalyst for their dreadful start to the game, which saw them go 3-0 down after just nine minutes.
“It’s not even about tactics, we just could not fight,” Lloris said. “Newcastle had a great performance, they were very aggressive. It’s difficult right now to analyse the performance but there was probably a lack of pride.
“To concede four goals in twenty minutes, you can get punched, once, twice you can concede. But on the pitch there was something strange, we could not react.
Lloris did not want to use the club’s off-field problems as an excuse for Sunday’s display claiming his side’s level of performance is the reason they were so convincingly swept aside.
“We cannot hide ourselves behind the club’s problems,” he said. ”We are players, we are professional and every time we go on the field we try to deliver the best but today there was a difference of level today between Newcastle and Tottenham.
“Now there are two difficult games in a week and we have to bounce back as a team.”
On his early exit from the game, Lloris admitted he wouldn’t know the true extent of the issue until after the results of a scan.
He added: “It doesn’t sound good. I think it’s a muscle around the hip. I felt something on the long kick. It doesn’t sound good but we will see tomorrow or in two days after a scan.”
