By Tuttosport ( italian newspaper)
Knowing him, it will be difficult to make him admit it, but Antonio Conte's Tottenham is in effect one of the candidate teams to win this Premier. Certainly not the favorite - and this could prove to be an advantage - but certainly one of the teams that will fight until the end with the other 2 or 3 most accredited candidates. The 4-1 with which the Spurs got rid of Hasenhuttl's hostile Southampton, in their league debut, confirmed the good things that had already been seen last season since Conte took over the team. In just over 10 months, the Italian technician transformed a tactically lost group with low morale into an army trained for each battle, capable of always making the right play and repeating with great application those mechanisms so dear to the technician. What a Count it was
a master, in England it was already known from the days of Chelsea, when he stupefied everyone by winning the Premier at the first attempt. That he was able, however, in such a short time to put together the pieces of a Tottenham in full identity crisis and with so many players eager to leave the ship was not discounted. Against the Saints, the Italian coach relied on the old guard, the one that allowed him to hit the Champions League goal last year. The new arrivals are all on the bench, including the former Inter Perisic. The most expensive purchase in this market, the Brazilian Richarlison, is still disqualified. The two former Juve players, Bentancur and Kulusevski, are already an integral part of Conte's old guard. In particular, it is the Swedish winger who has benefited most of all from the Conte treatment: the memory of a player who is standing and at times including some off-white seasons has given way to the image of a brilliant footballer , currently one of the strongest external attackers in Europe. His assist for Sessegnon in the action leading to the Spurs equalizer, less than 10 minutes after the advantage of the guests achieved by Ward-Prowse. The Swede's assist is the ninth since he made his debut with Tottenham last February. None
no in the Premier has been able to do better. Assist, but also a goal for the former Juve: Kulusevski, in fact, signs the 4-1 Spurs with his classic left-handed billiard shot. At the end of the match, Conte himself exalts the performance of the former Juve: "Kulusevski has only been 22 years old and can certainly become a crack. He has all the qualities to be a top player. He has strength, he pulls, makes many assists and scores goals. He is a player who has a very dissimilar perspective and it is up to him to keep wanting to reach certain levels. To reach certain levels, from good to excellent, there is a small gap (to fill in) and therefore it must be he who wants to continue working in this way ". The other two Spurs goals are the work of a new-found Dier, very good at taking advantage of the assist of Conte's other winger, the Korean Son, and the own goal of an unfortunate Salisu. A convincing victory and the best start Conte could have hoped for. On Sunday, however, there is already the first litmus test, a fundamental test to understand if the level of this Tottenham has really risen compared to last season. The Spurs, in fact, will visit Chelsea: «I have already reminded my team that last year against them we lost 3 games in 12 days and there we really saw all the difference. It is inevitable that this year we will go there to play also to understand what our level is and where we have arrived ".