Arsenal has handed Tottenham Hotspur two gifts in the last week. The Gunners first fell to Crystal Palace last Monday, then this weekend, they fell once more, losing to Brighton & Hove Albion.
The north London took advantage of Arsenal falling 2-1 to The Seagulls, putting forth a dominating performance against Aston Villa, winning 4-0 at Villa Park. After the match, manager Antonio Conte was asked about using the loss by Arsenal to motivate themselves.
Conte states that knowing their rival fell does provide them with the right desire to go out and get a result.
“I said this before Arsenal, United, and then Wolverhampton and West Ham are with us in the same race for a place in the Champions League. To know that your opponent lose their games, and for sure they have to give you the right desire, right will to get three points because in one hand you know our rivals lose the game if we lose, but we are always in the fourth place,” Conte said, per Football.London.
“A little, medium team can think this. A top, strong team, think that it is the right moment to improve the distance over your rivals and exploit this situation. We did this despite the difficulty of the game. I repeat, we didn’t play with a team no good; we played against Aston Villa in this stadium; it’s not easy for no one to win here.”
Spurs now have a three-point lead on Arsenal and a six-point lead on West Ham United and Manchester United. So Conte’s squad is in the driver’s seat. The only fixture left on their schedule where they won’t be the underdog is against Liverpool.
Every other opponent will be below them in the Premier League table, so their fate is in their hands from this point.
Another excellent result.
Solid defence, anchored midfield & devasting attack, you can see Antonio has changed everyone’s mentality.
Yes THFC do have 1 or 2 players that cause one’s heart to beat a syncopated rhythm occasionally (what club doesn’t?) but he’s made average players good, good players great & great players even better, both tactically & technically.
I like getting one over ‘Stevie G’.
I agree on Kulu. Totally proved me wrong. Delightful player to watch. Our front three are the nuts.
I thought that Villa were guilty of some awful tackles, bordering on intimidation. I know football is a physical game but we received three yellow cards to their two which was a travesty. I felt Cash deliberately followed through on Doherty and Ashley Young’s spiteful challenge from behind on Kane could have put him out for the season. If they had concentrated on playing football rather than kicking the s**t out of us, they might have had a better result. As coys 1882 states below, Conte made the right adjustments at half time and we were a different side after the break and played some great football. I concede that I was wrong about Kulu as I felt he wasn’t quick enough but he has an astute footballing brain and has been a revelation. Special mention goes to Romero whom I thought was outstanding all game. I am still very concerned about Royal whom I thought was very mediocre and I always feel that there is a ghastly mistake in him but the team as a whole played very well second half. Also, great results from Utd and Arsenal yesterday. I never believed that we might get a top four place this season but there is now a distinct possibility that we might. Imagine if the fourth place is decided by the game between us and Arsenal. I’m not sure I could bear to watch.
Nice that the curse of the “games in hand” situation bit Arsenal too! All too easy to consider them as points in the bag isnt it!
This is a key aspect and it cannot be overlooked. Attributes such as the “right desire”, “mentality”. Villa played with high intensity, in that first half, but they also tried to ‘rough us up’, bayed on by a hostile crowd. Aside from Hugo’s brilliance, on several occasions, it was sheer resilience, character, determination and organisation that kept Villa at arm’s length. Then a top class manager made some tactical adjustments at half time and we seized back control of the game in the second half.
Compare that to the wobbly Arse, who basically ‘bottled it’ at home, or to the dysfunctional collection of overpaid ‘prima donnas’ that constitute Man U these days, a team in name only. It becomes clear that the psychological profile of the team has been immensely improved by Conte, not just tremendous improvements in fitness and organisation. In recent times we would have crumbled under that first half onslaught, it was the mentality induced by Conte that prevented that from happening.