Antonio Conte tells Spurs stars to “move on quickly” from “strange” Arsenal game

Antonio Conte labelled Tottenham Hotspur’s north London derby loss to Arsenal as a “strange” game and told his players to move on quickly from the 3-1 defeat.

The Lilywhites were wasteful in the first half and were made to pay in the second 45 minutes due to mistakes of their own. Emerson Royal’s red card in the 62nd minute killed off the game for us when the scoreline was 2-1.

But the fact of the matter is that Spurs were not good enough in the final third and in possession on a lot of occasions, and it was our fault that we were not leading or at least level when the Brazil international was sent off.

Speaking after the game in his post-match interview, Conte said (h/t Football.London):

“I spoke with the players and said to try and move on quickly because sometimes you have a strange game. I think today was a game that after the first half we felt the possibility to win the game because we had the chances that we should exploit much better.”

The Lilywhites now have a big UEFA Champions League group stage game against Eintracht Frankfurt on October 4. There is no point crying over spilt milk and Conte believes that his team needs to pick the positives from the game and be ready for the challenge come Tuesday.

“In the second half to concede the goal quickly and then the red card, the game changed totally. Now I think we have to move on and know we have to take the positivity of this game. “

“Also we have to try and improve the situation that cost us defeat. We have to prepare for the next game, in only three days we have to play against Frankfurt and this has to be a big push.”

The Gunners are now four points clear at the top of the table with Manchester City still having a game in hand. The Lilywhites are still at 17 points after eight matches – four less than Arsenal.

Spurs did have chances in the first half. According to SofaScore, we did create two big chances – two more than the Gunners – before half-time and could have arguably prevented their second goal in the opening stages of the second half.

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Emerson’s red card for his challenge on Gabriel Martinelli feels very harsh but on second look, one can understand why the referee dished out the marching orders. After that, it was one-way traffic. Conte is right. It’s time to shift our focus towards Champions League football this week- a competition that the Gunners won’t be playing in this season.