That followed three quickfire strikes from Spurs. He struggled and was caught out with both Vitesse goals. Conte wanted to take a close look at what he has got and there was no slacking off.Ĭonte also immediately imposed the 3-4-3 formation that had worked to such effect at Chelsea and demanded that the defenders were pushed far higher up the pitch which seemed to unnerve Eric Dier. This was a line-up as strong as it gets for Spurs with no unwanted second-stringers fielded in this competition as was the doomed plan of Nuno Espirito Santo.

Still it made the third most important European trophy feel a little more relevant as Conte tried to remain calm, tried to remain cool but the competitive instinct kicked in and he was understandably often not best pleased with what he saw against a team who are fifth in the Eredivisie.Ĭonte was not messing about. Who says Conte plays boring football? Only those who do not know him or watch his teams although this is not the kind of wild drama he has in mind. They were holding on before the Dutch dismissals. By the end they had won, with Vitesse reduced to nine men after Spurs also suffered a red card, but it was far from convincing as well as confusing. Less than half an hour in the Spurs fans were singing “Antonio, Antonio” and it appeared the players were liberated as the football flowed and they raced into a 3-0 lead. This may have only been the Europa Conference League but it was a game to impress the new man in a competition Spurs want to win. When there is the possibility to kill the opponent you must kill.” It means anything can happen,” Conte said before adding: “The players have to understand what I want.” That sounded more like a threat than a request before he added: “I want a stable team. “It was a crazy game…I don’t like these types of games. Even so if Antonio Conte had any doubt at the task in hand as the head coach then he will not have any more. But, in fairness, this time they held on for the win and that is a form of progress. All in 90 minutes when it usually, at least, takes a few weeks. Bright start, fans dare to dream and then a chaotic collapse. Except far more entertaining even if, at times, that entertainment was inadvertent.

This was the current Tottenham in a nutshell.

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