‘Our level has improved a lot’ – Conte issues warning to Arsenal in race for fourth

Antonio Conte has claimed that although Arsenal are the favourites to secure a fourth-place finish, his side have improved considerably over the last few months.

Tottenham comfortably overturned West Ham on Sunday in what was billed as a six-pointer in the race for Champions League qualification.

The win took Spurs to fifth place in the table, with the Lilywhites sitting just three points off their North London rivals in fourth, having played a game more than Mikel Arteta’s side.

With Arsenal having a tricky run of fixtures over the next couple of months and still having to come to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for the derby, the race for fourth seems wide open heading into the business end of the season.

Conte insisted the Gunners are further ahead than Spurs in their project, given the time Arteta has had at the Emirates. However, the Italian insisted his side are a much-improved outfit compared to just a couple of months ago.

When asked if he was relishing the opportunity to put pressure on Arsenal, Conte told Football.London: “The only way to put pressure to Arsenal is to get three points, to win.

“There are nine games to go and for us every game has to be a final and in this moment for sure they have a good advantage, also, especially because they’re working with the same coach for many years and they have many transfer markets with the same coach.

“Maybe they are in this moment more ready than us but in five months we did a fantastic job with these players and now I think that we reduced the gap with many teams in England.

“One example, two months ago we played against Chelsea three times and we lost three games but it was right to lose these three games because Chelsea showed to be better than us in every aspect.

“After two months now I would like to have another chance to see which is our level and I’m sure now our level has improved a lot and now I’m sure that Chelsea could fight much more to win the game against us than before.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I have been quite critical of some of our recent performances under Conte but there are certainly signs that the team is improving as they get more accustomed to the Italian’s ideas.

It seems like the players now understand their roles much better and there is also no doubt that the additions of Kulusevski and Bentancur have made us a much better outfit.

Whether we manage to qualify for the Champions League or not, there are many reasons to be optimistic heading into next season.

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