Antonio Conte lauds the mental resilience Tottenham Hotspur showed vs Aston Villa
Antonio Conte has showered praises on the mental resilience that Tottenham Hotspur showed during their impressive performance against Aston Villa. A splendid second-half display saw his team run riot against the hosts on the night after they endured a difficult first 45 minutes in general.
Tottenham did have to work hard to get their 4-0 victory over Villa, which may not be evident from the scoreline. Even if they broke the deadlock before the five-minute mark had passed, the first half was a tightly contested fixture as the visitors needed to claw through a difficult phase and weather out the pressure from Steven Gerrard’s side. They eventually did, which laid the foundations for their fantastic display after the break.
Speaking in the post-match interview (h/t Tottenham Hotspur official website), Conte has hailed Spurs for the strength that they showcased in the first half to hold out in a tough away fixture. He added that the squad is getting better in terms of suffering at the right time so that they can put in an offensive at an opportune moment. Finally, the boss has conveyed that they now are confident enough to endure because of the improvements they have made so far.
“If someone thinks you play Villa away, with this atmosphere, and you don’t find a tough situation… we were very prepared and showed in the first half great resilience. I think we are also improving in the mental aspect, and to suffer in the right moments. We have more confidence, sometimes you can suffer (in) the pressure, the atmosphere, but in the second half, we showed better football.”
Everything is coming together!
The Italian manager has made us a more complete team in a short period, considering how we can now deal with various phases during a match. We have become much better in our ability to “suffer” in certain moments. It is quite normal that teams cannot dominate for the entire duration of a match, so excelling in such periods would make us even better.
As such, it is good to see how good we have become to make life difficult for others. That being said, we still have room for growth, which makes our current progress even more exciting to think about. Philippe Coutinho, for example, did conjure some chances which his teammates failed to take advantage of, and we must get better at defending such opportunities.
Nevertheless, it is always good to have more arsenal in our bag as it enables us to cope with different teams who employ varied tactics and styles. Even the previous fixture against Newcastle United showcased signs of similar progress. We saw a similar first half against them as well, although the team arguably did better this time around.
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Let’s hope to see this continue moving forward, especially after the great results we have enjoyed this matchday. After all, we now have a more firm grip over the fourth spot in the Premier League table after Arsenal lost 2-1 against Brighton and Hove Albion. That means our future prospects in the Champions League are completely in our hands at this moment.
That is a great turnaround to our season, which most of us probably would not have expected when the former Inter Milan boss first walked into the club. Let’s hope that we can enjoy a great end to this season and use it to build towards a successful campaign in the future.
