See highlights from Southampton-Tottenham at the top!
Antonio Conte has got off to a good start as manager of Tottenham. After the Italian took over from Nuno Espirito Santo in November, the Spurs have gone undefeated in the Premier League, with four wins and three draws.
The Lily Whites are now five points behind fourth place in the Premier League, arch-rival Arsenal, with two games to spare. Tottenham have seriously signed up in the battle for Champions League games next season.
Conte is still anything but happy with the state of affairs at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
At Thursday’s press conference, Conte made it clear that his squad is not good enough to qualify for the Champions League and that Tottenham need new players when the transfer window opens in January.
– Clearly. After only two weeks, I said that we need to strengthen the team and it is clear that we need to increase the quality of the squad. I was sure after seven days, ten days, two weeks about this … Then I did some evaluations to find out which players I could trust and which I could not trust, Conte said.
The former Chelsea coach, who is the first coach in Tottenham’s history to go undefeated in his first seven league games, later added:
– The team needs more quality, but in a proper way. Before we think of places in Europe, we must recognize that the level in the Premier League is very high. Now we are in the middle layer and we have to think about building something strong. That’s why I’m more about patience and time because the gap to the best is very large and we have to work hard and hard, at the same time as we build teams and strengthen the squad.
Believes Tottenham must overperform 200 percent
At the top there is a gap of six points from Liverpool in third place to Arsenal in fourth place. At the same time, it is even among the teams behind Arsenal, where both Tottenham and Manchester United, for example, have played two games less than the competition.
– I do not know who are favorites. On paper, there are obviously four very strong clubs with good teams: City, United, Chelsea and Liverpool. I think these are the four best teams and they must fail for us to get to the Champions League, says Conte about the battle for the top four, and adds:
– We must also be very good, because we also have Arsenal, West Ham, Leicester, Everton, many, many good teams. One must hope that the others fail and that we are good and overperform 200 percent.
Contes Tottenham play their first New Year’s Day away against Watford. Then he has a month to sign the players he wants.
Watch Contes Spurs against Watford on 1 January from 15.30 on TV 2 Sport Premium and Play!
Watford – Tottenham
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