Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur

Premier League • England

Antonio Conte backtracks on ‘impossible’ talk as he picks out Tottenham’s Mr Reliable

Antonio Conte Tottenham March 2022

Antonio Conte says he still has his eye on fourth place and his Tottenham side are “fighting” as he paid tribute to one “reliable” Spurs man in the 2-0 win over Brighton.

Only last month Conte had ruled out a top-four finish after three defeats on the spin against Chelsea, Southampton and Wolves. In fact the downbeat Italian said it was “impossible” to qualify in the Premier League’s top four. But fast forward a month and Spurs are right in the hint after a routine win on the south coast.

Harry Kane created a slice of Premier League history as he helped Tottenham to a 2-0 win at free-falling Brighton.

After Cristian Romero had put Tottenham in front before the break, Kane entered the record books just before the hour by scoring his 95th goal away from home – more than any other player.

He also moved above Frank Lampard in the list of all-time scorers, going into fifth with 178 goals and more records are surely around the corner given the England’s captain devastating prowess.

It was his seventh strike in six Premier League games and helped keep Spurs in the race for the top four, though they remain big outsiders as they are still behind Arsenal, who have two games in hand.

It was a display which Conte was more than happy with.

Conte said: “I think it was a good performance. The team is having a good performance.

“In the last period I’m seeing good improvement. In the last few games we’ve scored a lot of goals.

“It means that we are improving and we are trying to go in another step to try to be very close at the top of the table. It’s right to have ambition and I put ambition to my players.

“It’s a difficult target. To reach fourth place is not simple but I feel we are ready to fight in every game. It happens that you can lose matches like at United which we deserved more from.

Mr Reliable

“On Sunday we have a crucial game against West Ham and they have the same target as us.”

Conte also hailed his Spurs newcomers and the “reliable” Harry Winks,

“It is very difficult to speak about the single player because the whole team played a good game,” said Conte

“To see Bentancur and Deki go into the team so quickly is great for us. I said to you after these two signing we are more complete.

“We needed a player like Rodrigo, don’t forget Winksy because he is a reliable player.

Marc Cucurella Tottenham Hotspurs Dejan Kulusevski March 2022

“Kulusevski is showing to be a fantastic prospect, he is 22 years old. You can see that he is strong physically, good talent, they are helping us a lot.

Brighton boss Graham Potter paid tribute to Spurs and said their quality was evident.

“You have to credit the opponent because they played well today. They’ve got some top players and the difference in quality was there to see.”

“They’ve got some good players, which is an understatement. You can only fight for the ball which we did but the difference in quality was clear,” said Potter.


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Kane hails ‘bit of luck’

Goalscorer Kane said: “It was a great performance coming to a tough place. Brighton are a really good team and play good football. We got ahead in the game and then I think we controlled it. Overall it was a really good night away from home.

 

“Sometimes you need a bit of luck to go your way to break the deadlock and that’s what happened and from there we controlled it.

“I was really pleased to get the goal and help the team win the match. Milestones are great especially away from home, it is always tough so to know you can do it year-on-year against tough opposition is nice but it is all about the team and working hard.

“We played good football we just have to keep winning games.”

On playing West Ham next, Kane added: “West Ham are right there in the top-four chase, it will be a really tough game and it is really important for momentum going into the international break.”

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