:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/48907919/GettyImages-511612540.0.jpg)
Son Heung-Min is mad. Tottenham Hotspur exited the FA Cup with an unlucky 1-0 home loss to Crystal Palace, and Spurs' Korean playmaker showed his and his teammates' frustration with the way they went out of the competition.
"Because we lost we are angry, I am angry. This is football, we have to understand. We had many chances to score and to win this game but it wasn't easy. It's finished now and we have to concentrate on the Europa League. We can't play every game, every tournament. Now we can concentrate on the Europa League and Premier League."
Spurs certainly should feel a little unlucky to be on the losing end of the match at White Hart Lane. Despite dominating Palace in many areas over the course of the match, the one thing they simply couldn't do was get the ball past the goal line. Dele Alli, for example, had a shot that inexplicably went off both goalposts before bouncing out, and Spurs had numerous opportunities that just didn't go in. Michael Caley's xG map for the match would seem to corroborate that, on balance, Spurs were the better team on Sunday.
xG map for Tottenham - Crystal Palace. Almost an exact match for the Arsenal-Hull xG but Palace finished theirs. pic.twitter.com/KewcjHTEwf
— Michael Caley (@MC_of_A) February 21, 2016
But despite his manager's post-match comments that fatigue had nothing to do with Spurs' loss in the FA Cup, Son seemed to suggest that the congested fixture schedule may have had more of an impact:
"I think [exiting the Cup could have benefits], because it's now going to the end of the season. All the players are tired. But we now have tournaments to play. We are not happy we are out of the FA Cup. I think we had the quality for the FA Cup. We are angry because we lost.
We have four days until we play [Fiorentina] and we can be really focused and really relaxed. We have to win. We are ready."
It was an unlucky loss in a cup match where Spurs were clearly the better side. It's no wonder Sonny's angry, but that's football, and also the nature of cup competitions in general. If the team can take this anger and channel it into a positive and dominant win over Fiorentina, that will help establish the narrative of this loss as a mere blip in an otherwise outstanding Tottenham season.