Spurs boss Antonio Conte has urged his side “to try and move on quickly ” following their crushing derby day defeat.
The Lilywhites fell 3-1 to their North London rivals, in a dominate display by the Gunners. Goals from Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus and Granit Xhaka meant Tottenham’s unbeaten run came to an end.
A reckless red card for wing-back Emerson Royal heightened Spurs’ misery. Conte, who has been heavily criticised by spurs fans for persisting with the Brazilian, commented on the sending off:
“Emerson is a young player, he is only 22, I think he has to try and exploit this situation to be better and in the next situation avoid totally the tackle.”
However, the Italian also stated:
“The player was really surprised about the decision as were all the players.”
The lilywhites return action midweek in the Champions League against Frankfurt. Conte:
“We have to prepare for the next game, in only three days we have to play against Frankfurt, and this has to be a big push.”
Spurs centre-half Eric Dier, clearly hurting from the defeat, said:
“They were better than us…we could have scored more; we weren’t decisive enough.”
However, Dier also defiantly stated that “it is only the beginning of the season, we lost here last year.”
Spursy is back. When will conte ever learn. The players still have the weak mentality tag.
Totally outclassed by an attacking, footballing team. One team played football, the other team ran around trying to stop free flowing football.
Exactly WW conte played right into their hands.
If Conte wants play on the back foot in a derby on the road then why play Perisic as the fullback w new comer Lenglet as left center back and Son the left wingback? These three continued to get beat down that side. Perisic couldn’t deal w Saka and required help throughout the match. Sessegnon with more athleticism I believe would’ve matched up better there. Perisic is a great player going forward but should be used against teams who we are clearly superior to.
This drop back system of absorbing pressure is definitely hard to stomach. We get pressed in our end of the pitch and most of the time it feels like there’s no way out.
How did Conte try and win the game? By bringing on 4 defenders….unbelievable. Why give up? Still time for at least 2 goals and we throw in the towel even though we we rubbish.
Shows the weakness of our bench and squad of players. Where are our attacking midfielders? Where are our creative players?
I have said it previously that at some point we would be found out and unfortunately yesterday was it . We have been undone using Cont’s defensive tactics by two attacking teams with pace in Arsenal and Sporting . We ought to have been stuffed by Chelsea earlier in the season . I am a fan of Perisic but yesterday was not the game in which to play him . Why wasn’t Bissouma and Sess used with a different system employed ? We needed pace . Is Conte so fixed on this wing back system that he is unable or unwilling to change formation to suit which ever team we are playing ?
There is no doubt that we will do reasonably well in the league but it will be interesting to see how we fair vs the better teams and to see if Conte will be more flexible .
My 1st choice….
Lloris
Romero…Dier…Lenglet
Spense…Bissouma…Bentancur…Sess
Kulu
Son…Richi.
This leaves a pretty good bench to choose 5 from.
Bench…HK, Moura, Perisic, Skippy, Hoj, Davies, Sanchez, Doh!, Sarr, etc COYS
Pompey..
No Kane?
Conte won’t play Spence. He doesn’t like him. Same with Sarr and Harvey White. They will sit on bench all season.
Conte is far too rigid and defensive.
We are in for a boring season as we slip down the table.
Our target has to be two points average per game. At the moment we are still on track. The time to be concerned is when we significantly fall behind the taget. It is that complicated or that simple.
Geoff, we won the games we should win even playing badly and being made to look second best a lot of the time. We stole a point at Chelsea and were outplayed yesterday even before the red card. There have been no sign of improvement in any aspect of our game so it has seemed obvious to me that our position was unsustainable. I find it hard to accept that Conte is building a winning mentality as he claims.
Five away games played this season and five really poor performances. Only one win, somewhat undeserved at Forest. Once more we failed to turn up in our two really big ones at Chelsea and Arsenal. West Ham I find hard to comment on as I fell asleep through sheer boredom. The Lisbon game was also equally inept. And yet this supposed elite manager we have changes nothing. And we can guarantee that the same system and largely the same players will be employed on Tuesday. Even Emerson Royal who is one of the worst premier league players I have ever seen will probably start on Tuesday.
Our home performances have not been much better, results have been better than away from home largely due to the quality of the opposition. Even in these games we were outplayed in large parts of the games by Wolves, Leicester and Marseille.
I find Conte cowardly as a manager, afraid to give the young players a chance, afraid to bring players back from injury and afraid to adapt tactically. What a contrast to Arteta and Klopp who will both not hesitate to play younger players (Saliba, Sako, Martinelli, Elliot, Carvalho etc) Unless he changes and changes soon, the squad will not be able to cope with the hectic upcoming schedule. We are already desperately short of depth in midfield and attack – unless something changes we will be looking at Europa League football after the World Cup together with a desperate fight for European places in the rest of the season.
Very disappointed with Conte. Very little improvement on Nuno. He is not a good fit for Spurs. Yet again I blame Levy for his lack of judgement and usual panic.
Only Pochettino has provided us with the skill,flair and attacking play that most of us crave. Yep, he didn’t win a trophy but what a ride. If Levy had backed him when the team was aging, we would still be knocking at the door and delighting crowds.
This will be a season of boredom and defensive football using the same tired old methods and youngsters on the bench gathering dust ( Spence, Gil, White and Sarr).
Conte has his plan to return to Italy and Juventus. Let him go asap.
I would also like to add that we are so boring to watch. Hasn’t Conte learnt that negative football share the main tactic seems to be to hope that the opposition don’t take their chances and that we get something on the counter attack doesn’t work in the Premier League. We may as well have kept Mourinho is this is the best Conte has to offer.
I don’t go to football to be bored and to see us concede the the initiative to the opposition from minute one. As fans of a big club with large resources I expect us to have a go and try to beat the opposition rather than try to bore them into submission. You never know, it may even be successful.
LT, DH, WW …. I agree with all of your comments. If Arsenal, City, Pool, and Brighton can play entertaining, attacking football (historically the Spurs way), why can’t we. Even in the WSL Chelsea, Arsenal and City play the same entertaining way. Looking at the table it obviously works and the supporters love it.
We are still in the race if we keep averaging two points per game but if, by some chance, we should win the title playing this way I would have far sweeter memories of the MP era.
Unfortunately, as many of the squad have been brought in to suit Conte’s style, it would probably take a major overhaul of the players should he leave or be sacked …. leading to a few more seasons of uncertainty.
Gotta love football …. but sometimes it’s hard!! I think that is why I can disassociate myself from the PL (avoiding conflicting emotions) and enjoy watching Chelsea (mainly) and Spurs in the WSL.
Geofspurs – good post. I cannot bear the way we play, we have enough talent in the squad to play on the front foot but instead of being brave, our manager chooses to be cowardly. Keep playing like this and he will soon be going the way of Jose.
Agree totally DH except we have no midfield talent which is the crux. Also Conte does not like playing young players. Spence, Harvey White, Sarr and Gil need to be given decent minutes instead of bringing on 4 defenders.
I cannot see much changing under Conte. He is not a good fit and I guess he will be off to Italy if things go pear shaped. He does not like criticism so I cannot see him lasting much longer.
We really need a creative coach/manager in the style of Pochettino so bring back some enjoyment to our play. Audere est facere.
Things will slowly start to turn if we drop out of top 4. We still have liverpool and Chelsea a few points behind us.
Let’s see what Conte does at left fullback for the next three Premier league games now that his hand is forced to use somebody besides Royal due to his red card. I agree w WW to the point that we have no creative midfield options.