MY ACCOUNT
Antonio Conte said Tottenham learnt a lot after their surprise defeat against NS Mura following a dominant Premier League win over Brentford.
Spurs suffered late heartbreak in the Europa Conference League in a 2-1 loss to the competition’s lowest-ranked team Mura, but bounced back with a 2-0 victory on Thursday.
Sergio Canos’ own-goal gifted Spurs the lead in the first ever top-flight meeting between the two sides, the right wing-back becoming the 25th Spaniard in the Premier League to turn into his own net.
Son Heung-min doubled Tottenham’s advantage after the interval, the South Korea international’s 75th top-flight goal for Spurs and fifth this season, no team-mate has scored more than two.
But head coach Conte pinpointed their failures in Slovenia as a crucial learning curve for the success at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and to further build upon.
“The difference was that today we won, in Slovenia, it was a really bad defeat for everyone,” former Inter boss Conte told reporters after the game.
“I think you can learn a lot more about a loss than a win but for sure the defeat hurt us against Mura. Today was a good win, to get three points is not easy against Brentford who are organised and good at set-pieces.
“But we showed a great desire to get three points and win. We fight to win the tackles and we were very concentrated.
“For sure we can improve and we have a lot of space for improvement in possession. Without the ball we did well and we put pressure on them and I want to see this to make it difficult for our opponent to play the ball. We’ll continue to work to improve.”
Conte also reserved special praise for Oliver Skipp, who he feels he can develop during his time in London.
“He’s very young, there’s a lot of space for improvement,” Conte responded when asked about Skipp.
“He played with a lot of heart and soul. For me he doesn’t care if he is 21-years-old.
“Today he played well but I think I can improve him a lot in possession technically, but we are talking about a very important prospect and I am happy for him and now we need to continue to improve him.
“Without the ball, he works very hard. For sure, the part he has to improve is on the ball but in one month I have seen a lot of improvement about Skippy.
“He’s a player who wants to improve The present and future depends on him. He can be a top midfielder, but he has to continue to work. He has this will and desire to become an important player.”
Tottenham have won all three of their home matches under Conte in all competitions, with the Italian the fourth consecutive Spurs boss to start his tenure with wins in each of his first three home games in charge (also Jose Mourinho, Ryan Mason and Nuno Espirito Santo), with Mauricio Pochettino in 2014 the last to fail to do so.
