Conte opens up on the pressure he puts on himself ahead of Man City clash

Despite Tottenham’s recent struggles, Antonio Conte has insisted that he fully believes his side can get a result against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium this evening.

Spurs have picked up just four points from a possible 12 on offer since the Premier League’s restart and their first defeat at home to Arsenal since 2014 has created a sense of doom and gloom around the club.

Things do not get any easier for Conte’s men who travel to the reigning Premier League champions this evening, knowing that defeat could see them fall eight points behind the top four over the coming days if other results go against them.

Tottenham will perhaps take heart from the fact that they pulled off an unlikely 3-2 win at the Etihad last season despite being in poor form going into the game.

Conte is under no illusions about the difficulty of the task his side face, with the Italian labelling City as the ‘best team in the world’ but he insisted that his side is capable of coming away with a result.

The 53-year-old told Football.London: “We are talking about a really difficult game because we are going to face the best team in the world.

“In this type of game, it’s not important to give extra motivation to your players because they know the importance of the game. They have the motivation in themselves because they know they are going to play against top players.

“But at the same time, we want to go to play our game and to try to get a good result. We know the difficulty of the game but we are preparing the game to try to have a good result and give a good result to our fans.

“It has to be always in this way. Sometimes we are good to do it, sometimes we are not good to do it, but the most important thing is you have prepared yourself 100 per cent to try to get a good result.

“About myself, I put pressure in every game because I want to win. If my team is going to play with a team at the bottom of the table or in first, I put the same pressure because for me the pressure is positive.

“The pressure allows me to give 100 per cent. If I’m relaxed and I don’t have energy, it’s not a good signal for myself. For this reason, in every game, I put pressure on myself to try to find great energy.”

Spurs Web Opinion

The one potential positive is the fact that City themselves are not playing particularly well at the moment and we know we have the players to hurt them. However, the main problem is at the other end as it is difficult to see us restricting them to under two or three goals this evening.

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