Manchester United delivered a hammer blow to Antonio Conte and Tottenham on Saturday evening in the race for a Champions League place.
Such an important game for both sides in their quest to seal a spot in Europe's premier competition in 2022/23, it was Ralf Rangnick's men who came out on top courtesy of Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick.
Managing to peg the Red Devils back twice with Harry Kane and a Harry Maguire own goal cancelling out the Portuguese's strikes, the 37-year-old had the last laugh as he powerfully headed home a corner in the 81st minute to see United move into fourth.
The Lilywhites remain in seventh but are now five points behind United, although that deficit will increase to six points if Arsenal beat Leicester City on Sunday afternoon.
Certainly a huge setback for Conte and his team in the race for fourth, Spurs had plenty of chances throughout the course of the game and really should have left with points in the bag.
Maybe not creating as many openings in the second half compared to the opening 45 minutes, Tottenham did manage to grab a crucial equaliser on 72 minutes when Maguire turned the ball into his own net.
Looking like a decisive moment in the game and one that perhaps could have seen Spurs turn the match around and collect all three points, Conte made it clear to his players what they needed to do seconds after the own goal.
The TV cameras picked up on him screaming "focus now" numerous times at his players before the restart, the head coach clearly sensing that the game was there for the taking if they remained strong across the pitch.
Nine minutes later they found themselves one goal down again after Ronaldo had towered above everybody to head home.
The focus he wanted was clearly not there as Manchester United's No.7 peeled off the back of Cristian Romero to connect with Alex Telles' corner and find the net.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Conte opened up on the defeat and stated that his team need to "try to improve in experience and to manage the game" after losing late on.
"I'm the first to tell that if you want to be competitive, if you want to improve your level you have to try, to work a lot," said the Italian in his post-match press conference.
"At this moment the team needs to work a lot on many aspects. At the same time we have to be stable, to be stable and to keep good results in every moment. Instead we are doing up and down, up and down.
"Don't forget that in the last five games we scored three goals at Manchester City away, four goals away at Leeds, five goals against Everton, two goals here against United away. It means that the team is producing, is improving, and creating chances and scoring a lot of goals.
"But at the same time we have to try to improve in experience and to manage the game. Because during the game there are many parts of the game. There are moments where you feel you have to push and to push, and to go strong, to win duels.There are moments that you have to keep possession. You have to be more calm. I think in this aspect we can improve a lot. It depends on the experience.
"We have many players, young players and many players that they are in this league for not a long time. I know very well that I have to change this situation, working a lot, working a lot.
"This situation it hasn't come from now but has come from a long period, to see up and down, up and down, for this team. We have to continue to work and to give continuity to make more experience to manage the game because of the example.
"We have equalised but after one minute we conceded a second goal. We have made it 2-2 but then we have conceded a goal from a set piece. In the last period we have been conceding a lot of goals from set pieces but we are working on this.
"You have to know that this is a process because this team is a team that needs time, needs time to grow and improve, but I think you can see their improvement, a big improvement on the pitch.
"You can see what they're doing on the pitch but in this process you need time and patience and then try to do this but I want to push my players, because our ambition has to be to stay very close to the top four.
"I want to take this responsibility because we are working a lot and I am seeing a lot of improvement. We need a target to give us emotion, to give us the possibility to push ourselves.
"We have to be disappointed because from this game we deserved much more, not only to draw."
As mentioned by Conte, his Spurs team is certainly producing as can be seen by the amount of goals they've scored recently and the manner of their wins, but little things are letting them down and the reason for their inconsistent form.
Facing a mountain to climb in the race for the top four now following their slender defeat at Old Trafford, Spurs will be praying that results go their way over the next week to hand them a Champions League lifeline.
Focus is very much going to be key between now and May as they look to put things right and finish as high as possible.
