Antonio Conte has praised the importance of Heung-min Son for scoring twice in Tottenham’s win over West Ham after insisting he couldn’t drop the Korean from his starting line-up.
Son powered Spurs to a crucial 3-1 win over their London rivals on Sunday to close the gap on Arsenal in fourth-place back down to three points.
Tottenham led early courtesy of an own goal from Kurt Zouma, before the 29-year-old doubled his side’s lead midway through the first-half.
After Said Benrahma pulled West Ham back into the encounter, Son made sure of the points late into the second period with a cool finish past Lukasz Fabianski after being sent through by Harry Kane.
But there were suggestions that he would not secure a starting berth against the Hammers, with Conte questioned if he would consider starting him from the bench due to some patchy displays of late.
The Italian insisted he would be ‘crazy’ to go through with that (Evening Standard), and saw his faith in Son repaid as he notched an important double to keep Spurs firmly in contention for a Champions League spot.
Reacting to Son’s display, Conte said (via Football.London): “It is always very difficult during a season there are different periods, sometimes you have a lot of confidence, sometimes everything you try to do you are able to do and sometimes the confidence can go down.
“The important player is good to manage in this moment. We are talking about a really very good player but at the same time he is a good person and he suffers if the performance is not good, but especially if we don’t get three points.
“This must be the first thing, to think for the team, not for ourselves. He is an important player for us and he showed that he is an important player and I have seen a lot links between him, Harry and [Dejan] Kulusevski. We are working a lot under this aspect.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Conte was proven right to keep Son in the starting line-up as he produced a confident display to edge Spurs past West Ham.
Spurs don’t have better options to replace him either, so it is good that he persisted with him and was ultimately repaid for keeping faith.