Guglielmo Vicario vows Tottenham will ‘fix’ set-piece woes after derby defeat

Guglielmo Vicario has called for Tottenham to stick together and promised to improve their set-piece defending after a painful home defeat to Arsenal.

The Gunners secured bragging rights on Sunday after defender Gabriel headed in the only goal from Bukayo Saka’s 64th-minute corner.

Set-piece woe was a recurring theme during the second half of Ange Postecoglou’s debut campaign and while Tottenham have been more solid from them this season, Vicario promised they would fix the issue.

Vicario said: “It is tough to find a solution. It’s a good delivery. Maybe Gabriel is a little bit just free to head the ball and put it down in the net. We will look, we will look.

“Of course in our meeting we will analyse, try to fix it and try to do better. It is tough because in this case small details can change the result and the outcome of the games.

“We have a brilliant coach, brilliant staff that can help us so we just need to stay together and believe in our football because we played such good games until now.

“(This) is a big defeat, we take the responsibility for that and now we have to prepare our best level for the next two games.”

Spurs will have little time to lick their wounds with a Carabao Cup clash at Coventry on Wednesday before Brentford visit on Saturday.

Sunday’s narrow loss to Arsenal proved to be a familiar tale with Tottenham able to dominate possession, but unable to fashion enough clear-cut chances as they dropped points for a third time this term.

“It hurts a lot,” Vicario told SpursPlay.

“This (derby) is special for our crowd and we know this. Now we have to take the pain and disappointment, but football gives you every time another opportunity.

“Sometimes the performances doesn’t reflect your effort and how you play. For that we just have to stick together because our moment will come because our football is good.

“Maybe we lost a bit, after they scored, of composure and mindset to stay who we are on the pitch, but we will fix it and take the rewards in the future.

“If we stick together, play this football with our focus, I think we will have a lot of victories this season.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Postecoglou, who added: “We are a team that is progressing in many areas. With all that progress, there are always new challenges and things you need to overcome.

“When I look at the four games in isolation this year, the football is probably more consistent and compelling than our first four games last year but obviously our results don’t reflect that.

“There are other areas we need to improve on and that’s my job to fill those gaps as quickly as possible.”

Arsenal claimed victory without captain Martin Odegaard, but Mikel Arteta remained coy over his fitness before Thursday’s Champions League trip to Atalanta.

“Regarding Martin, we still have to wait and see. The news is that he wasn’t available today,” said Arteta.