Mauricio Pochettino admitted that his Tottenham Hotspur players thought it was “job done” at 2-0 up against West Ham United at half-time, and felt they were at fault for letting Slaven Bilic’s side back into the game to ultimately lose their fourth-round League Cup tie 3-2.

The Argentine also implied that they had been brought back down to earth a bit having been “in the sky” following the 1-1 Champions League draw at Real Madrid and 4-1 home win over Liverpool, and that it might influence his thinking for Saturday’s match at Old Trafford against Manchester United.

Pochettino didn’t seem overly concerned to go out, though, as he pointed how West Ham could more easily rotate players for cup games and even said that the effort of the last few weeks had clearly affected the team on Wednesday night.

“Well, I think it’s easy to explain,” Pochettino said. “A lack of aggression. All that we have, our belief, everything we have been doing very well… then in the second half, we concede three goals and lose the game. In this kind of competition, you can’t lose focus. It’s true, the effort was massive in the last few weeks. It’s true, after the first half, it was like job was done and game over, but in football you can never give possibility to the opponent to come again. This is what happens, it’s difficult to explain, how they scored but that sometimes happens in football. I’m disappointed for our fans but that’s football.

“I think we allowed them to come back to the game. First half, I think was under control, I think we played well, scored 2-0, and I know, we are so disappointed, so difficult to explain

"Second half, in 15 minutes, we concede three goals. We lost aggression.

"Of course they have quality enough, nothing to lose, at 2-0, it’s always a danger when you concede the first goal.

“I think I told you that sometimes forced to make rotation, today fro different we rest some players. We wanted to win that game and go to next round but when you lose that doesn’t work, but now [we] need to find different solutions.

West Ham's players celebrate with Angelo Ogbonna after the Italian put his side ahead (Getty)

“In football, after a few weeks when we were in the sky, the performances against Real and Liverpool were fantastic. It’s just more difficult to play in these type of competitions when you rotate, and to keep momentum.

“I think we spent a lot of energy in last two games, and so difficult to keep that type of level. We were talking before, Real are going to play 11 different players against Fuenlabrada [in the Copa del Rey], and in England we play West Ham, a derby, they’re not in Europe.

“Never is good, always you feel bad when you lose.”