ANTONIO CONTE HAILED the fight of his Tottenham team and insisted they showed they have “good blood” after a heated 2-2 draw at his old club Chelsea.
Spurs have only won once at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League era and lost three times to Thomas Tuchel’s team back in January, but fought back on Sunday to salvage a dramatic point.
While Chelsea were the better team and led 2-1 going into stoppage time after Kalidou Koulibaly and Reece James goals, Harry Kane’s dramatic equaliser added to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s initial leveller to earn the visitors a point.
Conte, who had celebrated their first effort wildly, received a red card from referee Anthony Taylor following a second heated exchanged with rival boss Thomas Tuchel, but the Italian was eager to focus on the positives in the aftermath of a white hot battle.
He said: “I think the celebrations involved on both sides were really good celebrations, yes? The run, then the jump and you can understand about these celebrations because the feeling about us and Chelsea for this game.
“I think this game is an important game for both clubs. For sure for me it was important because to lose three games in a row against the same coach I don’t like.
“I hate to lose and you know very well I try to transfer my mentality and my passion into my players because you can be good tactically, technically but then you need good blood in your veins to fight for something important.
“I think we have started a process in this aspect and today I am happy because my players wanted to stay in the game despite the difficulty of the game.”
After being second-best for much of the first half, Conte switched to a 4-2-4 formation with summer recruit Richarlison introduced for his debut in the 57th minute.
The number of attacking players on the pitch contributed to Tottenham winning the ball back for Hojbjerg to equalise and while the same tactics also saw them caught out for James’ goal, another substitute Ivan Perisic produced a wonderful delivery from a stoppage-time corner to help Kane head in.
“In this game Chelsea showed to be better than us. We can do better, but we scored twice. In the last three games we didn’t score, so we got a point and showed in my opinion character and personality,” Conte insisted.
“We have to work on this system because the second goal we conceded was because defensively we were very poor, very poor.
“If we stayed with three centre backs for sure we wouldn’t concede this goal, but this could be a good option for us.
“Yeah, we can switch sometimes to play in this new formation but for sure we need to work and have the same knowledge that we have in 3-4-2-1.”
Giovani Lo Celso was not part of the squad and later on Sunday evening Tottenham confirmed the midfielder had completed a season-long loan to Villarreal.
The Argentina international spent the second half of the 2021-22 campaign with the La Liga side and has returned there, but there is no obligation for the move to be made permanent, the PA news agency understands.
Instead, Spurs have inserted a break clause where they can listen to offers for Lo Celso and end the loan early if they wish to let the 26-year-old depart on a permanent basis in January following the winter World Cup in Qatar.
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I’m a Villa fan and I’m not as confident about avoiding relegation – 14pts from the last 63 available.
And that manky new kit looks like it belongs in the Campionship!
Re: Liverpool. When you say ‘the anonymous Nuri Sahin’ , you do know he wasn’t in the starting 11 today.
Hi Barry,
Yes I’m aware of that fact, hence saying that Enrique was deployed in the midfield spot usually reserved for Sahin.
When I wrote about Sahin being ‘anonymous,’ it was in the context of his last three or four league appearances for Liverpool.
Thanks for the comment.
The most important thing that every reader has learned today is that Wigan have just awoken a sleeping giant.
If Suarez deservedly gets a 3 match ban for his dirty stamping incident, that giant will be in for a rude awakening! Who will score the goals then?
reina :P
Totally disagree about Spurs, brilliant half-time subs from AVB saw us give it a real go. Hell of an improvement on Harry.
Have to agree with you. Tony never seems too have any opinions of his own and spouts off the usual sky sports nonsense.
I respectfully disagree (and I wrote the bit on Spurs btw). The game was over by that stage, and any team can play well when the pressure’s off.
Well then we both disagree then Paul. I waiting for a piece thats new and thoughtful. My brother is Cameron Lancester who is in Spurs reserves. He tells me the Spurs squad is untied and enjoying football under AVB.. Contary to popular opinion but players were not happy with Harry. He froze out many at the club. Spurs are missing 4-5 key players through injury aswell. But team spirit and morale is high
Well it’s fine saying the spirit is high, but the evidence on the pitch suggests otherwise unfortunately. And it’s not a specific dig at AVB, the players are just as culpable, if not more so. We’ll have to agree to disagree I guess.
Nothing to do with spirit. Spurs defence is utter shite
I think the bit on Giggs was a bit harsh, if I was writing a piece on United tonight it would be about how although Valencia looks outstanding when given space behind a defence to run into, when you are organised and defend deep he has no imagination to break you down. Also, Rooney is still our best player, was missed terribly and needs to play higher up the pitch when he returns.
Without the sending off, Spurs would have taken it by 2-3 goals. Arsenal are still a shambles in their own half.
Shane Long has to be the story of the weekend, another man of the match performance, helping WBA into 4th place . Ireland are blessed to have a player of his quality, pity Trap doesn’t appreciate him.
Too true, then Trap is so far past it he is an embarrassment. And his decisions prove that every game..!
I also disagree with the Spurs comment. Watched the game as a neutral and after ten minutes Spurs could have been two nil up despite arsenal hogging possession. Meanwhile arsenal hadn’t created one chance. Sending off completely changed the game but even despite that and spurs still not having all that much possession it could have been 4-3 had bale passed to Defoe rather than shot in the 73rd minute. Had it gotten to that score line I have no doubt it would have cued the inevitable arsenal collapse and it would have been a draw. Arsenal looked good today but only because they played against ten men. Against 11 it was only going one way.
Shane Long was on fire today…plus a nice little double on both teams to score Arse v Spurs & QPR v Southampton. Get in.
5pur2
Shane Long is the future standard of Irish football, he reminds me of a young Robbie keane