Ange Postecoglou has warned no magic wand will get Tottenham’s Premier League top-four tilt back on track after they suffered a 2-1 home defeat to Wolves.

Spurs had returned to fourth position with a last-gasp victory over Brighton last weekend but were leapfrogged on Saturday by Aston Villa, who won at Fulham. 

Joao Gomes headed Wolves into a deserved lead after 42 minutes and, while Dejan Kulusevski levelled 34 seconds after the restart for Tottenham, Gomes grabbed his second after an excellent solo run by Pedro Neto with 63 minutes on the clock. 

It consigned the hosts to a frustrating defeat and they have now failed to score in the first half of their last five home matches. 

“We will work hard, we’ve got two weeks to prepare for our next game (against Crystal Palace) and there’s no point feeling sorry for ourselves,” Postecoglou insisted. 

“You take the blows and you’ve got to move on irrespective of what’s happened in the past. You’ve got to make sure you’re ready for the next game. 

“There’s no tricks, it’s hard work. I’m not a magician, I’m a football manager. It’s hard work which these guys have done all year. 

“Like I said, we’ve got to this point which is pretty decent on the back of some hard work and that’s what we’ll keep doing.” 

Spurs were without first-choice full-backs Pedro Porro and Destiny Udogie and struggled to break Wolves down in the opening 45 minutes with home goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario making fine saves to deny Nelson Semedo and Pablo Sarabia either side of Gomes heading in a corner by Sarabia. 

Tottenham came out firing after the break, like they had done in recent wins over Brentford and Brighton, with Kulusevski equalising after he dribbled past Craig Dawson and poked under Jose Sa. 

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Postecoglou’s team were beginning to build a head of steam but Wolves remained a threat on the break and, after Vicario denied Sarabia in the 56th minute, the visitors’ second arrived six minutes later. 

Yves Bissouma lost possession after a Spurs corner and Neto carried the ball half the length of the pitch before he cut back and teed up Gomes, who slammed home for his second of the afternoon. 

A raft of attacking players were thrown on by Postecoglou, but Jean-Ricner Bellegarde, Toti and Neto all squandered promising positions for Wolves before Ben Davies headed wide deep into stoppage-time for Tottenham to ensure Gary O’Neil’s side completed the double over the north London outfit.

Meanwhile, Mohamed Salah is back from injury – and back among the goals. But while the return of the talismanic striker was good news for Liverpool, beating Brentford 4-1 came at a cost as the team’s injury concerns piled up.

Salah, back after a month out with a hamstring injury, scored the third of Liverpool’s goals in a win at Gtech Community Stadium that kept them on top of the English Premier League on saturday.

First-half injuries to Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota, however, threaten to leave Jurgen Klopp’s squad further stretched in their four-pronged trophy pursuit.

“We have to see how much it costs us — we don’t know that yet,” Klopp said. “That Curtis cannot play on tells you that it must be something because he would have played on at all costs.

“Diogo looks probably the worst. I didn’t see it back, but I heard the pictures didn’t look great as well.”

Jota had to leave the field on a stretcher with an apparent knee problem, while Jones was hurt after being hit above his ankle.

Darwin Nunez was also taken off, but that appeared to be a precautionary measure.

Liverpool were already without goalkeeper Alisson, who was hurt in training on Friday, as well as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Thiago Alcantara and Dominik Szoboszlai.

But Klopp’s team still made light work of Brentford and raced into a 3-0 lead through goals from Nunez, Alexis Mac Allister and Salah. Ivan Toney pulled one back for Brentford before substitute Cody Gakpo got Liverpool’s fourth.

Liverpool’s lead over Arsenal is only two points after the Gunners’ latest rout.

After hammering West Ham 6-0 last week, Arsenal won 5-0 at Burnley, with Bukayo Saka scoring twice at Turf Moor while Martin Odegaard, Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz were also on target.

It was a sixth straight win for Arsenal and the third time in that sequence that they’ve scored five or more goals.

Manchester City drew 1-1 with Chelsea after Raheem Sterling scored against his old club.

While it looks like being a shootout between Liverpool, City and Arsenal for the title, the battle for Champions League qualification could also make tense viewing.

Aston Villa moved back up to fourth after winning at Fulham 2-1, while Tottenham lost at home to Wolves 2-1.

Just two points separate Villa and Spurs, while Manchester United could boost their chances of a top-four finish by beating Luton on Sunday.

Newcastle’s problems at home continued when they had to twice come from behind to draw with Bournemouth 2-2 at St James’ Park.

Matt Richie’s goal in the second minute of stoppage time earned a point, but couldn’t end a four-game winless run at home that dates to December.

Dominic Solanke put Bournemouth ahead in the second half, but Anthony Gordon levelled from the penalty spot.

Antoine Semenyo put the visitors in front again until Ritchie came to Newcastle’s rescue.

Seventh-placed Newcastle were a point ahead of West Ham after the London side suffered a third straight defeat, 2-0 at relegation-fighting Nottingham Forest. Some West Ham fans held up signs calling for manager David Moyes to go.