The Independent’s Miguel Delaney has claimed there is a belief within the Tottenham team that they are ready to take all three points against Chelsea on Sunday.
Even though Tottenham’s performances and results against the bigger sides were generally excellent last season after Conte replaced Nuno Espirito Santo at the helm, Chelsea were the one side the Lilywhites still struggled against.
Thomas Tuchel’s men overcame Spurs three times in quick succession back in January, with the North London club not scoring a single goal in any of those clashes.
Conte remarked in his pre-match press conference that he and his players are looking forward to the game at Stamford Bridge as it will help evaluate how far they have progressed as a team since the last meeting between the sides seven months ago (Football.London).
Delaney claims the Tottenham players believe they are capable of turning over Chelsea on Sunday despite the club’s poor record in the fixture historically.
The journalist wrote on Reading the Game newsletter in The Independent (12:05 pm, August 12, 2022): “As the Tottenham Hotspur players like Harry Kane and Heung-min Son collapsed to the ground after gruelling pre-season runs, there were smiles of relish on the faces of Antonio Conte and his staff.
“It wasn’t just that the squad were suffering for their benefit, although there was obviously a mischievous element. It was mostly how they were being honed, toughened.
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“Such military-like training all played into Conte’s belief that his teams, as an ideal, should be ‘small war machines’.
“It was a phrase he first used in his first pre-season with Chelsea back in 2016, before their first title. It is also something that Spurs are now starting to resemble, after his first pre-season at White Hart Lane.
“There is a belief within the team that they are ready to take on Chelsea, and take all three points. That is something that hasn’t happened much in recent history, as Conte knows too well.”
Spurs Web Opinion
There is no question that the players and Conte will be keen to set the record straight after the humiliating manner of the losses in January.
The one thing that could give us the edge is the fact that our players seem further along in their fitness levels than Chelsea at this point in the season.
Some Chelsea players seemed to struggle towards the end of the game against Everton last week and one would expect Spurs to finish the game much stronger.
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