Antonio Conte has said that Tottenham are focused on narrowing the gap with Manchester City after having finished 22 points behind the Premier League champions last season.
Spurs have had a strong start to the season, having accumulated 20 points in their first-name games, and currently sit in third place in the Premier League table.
The Lilywhites have a perfect home record so far this season, both in the Premier League and the Champions League, and Conte admitted that the team is determined to continue that against Everton this afternoon.
The Tottenham head coach told Football:London: “First of all, fingers crossed! For sure we want to continue this good run at home.
“To play at home for sure gives you a lot of energy, positive energy, because our fans from the start until the end they push us in a strong way. I feel this energy on the bench and I think my players feel this positive energy into the pitch.”
Conte also stressed the need for Spurs fans to create an intimidating atmosphere in every home game and make the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium a fortress.
He added: “We know very well and I know very well because I was a player what it means to play away when you find a difficult atmosphere.
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“I remember at Sporting Lisbon, also in Eintracht Frankfurt and then in England when you play in some stadiums it’s very very difficult – I remember against Nottingham Forest it was really difficult, a lot of noise.
“We have to try to exploit it when we play at home, for sure our fans have to be a twelfth player for us. We have to play with one player more. For Tottenham, this has to be important – for the fans, for the players, for me.”
Matches come thick and fast from now until the mid-season break for the World Cup, and Conte admitted that every single point is crucial for Spurs to keep pace with the teams at the top.
He also expressed the team’s determination to narrow the gap they had with Manchester City and Liverpool last season.
The 53-year-old said: “It’s difficult, we have to try to exploit every single game to get points. To make a prediction is very difficult.
“In England, in the Premier League, every game is not easy, you have to fight a lot. Then we have the Champions League that we want to go to the next round, but in this moment my will and desire is to win every game.
“We have to try to be better than last season. We have to try to do this. Last season we finished 20 points less than City and Liverpool. It means the gap was really important.
“My idea, what I want to try at the end of the season to reduce this gap. To have 20 points less than another team means there is a lot of difference.
“We are trying to work, to improve our situation, to become more competitive and my aspiration, and the players think the same way, is to show this season we have improved and are going in the right direction to reduce this gap.”
Spurs Web Opinion
While Spurs have struggled at times away from home this season, our performances at home, in general, have been very good, and that is a record that we need to build on to have any hope of keeping pace with Manchester City for the long-haul.
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