Antonio Conte has said that he does not want to give too much away to Arsenal when asked about the current injury situation in his squad ahead of the North London Derby.
The Italian was speaking to the press at Hotspur Way on Thursday and refused to comment on specific injuries, with the fitness of Dejan Kulusevski, Hugo Lloris, Christian Romero and Ben Davies doubtful after the international break. However, the Italian remained tight-lipped on which players could be fit for the match, choosing to keep Arsenal guessing ahead of Saturday's early kick off.
Tottenham could go top of the table with just a draw on Saturday, as they sit one point behind the Gunners in third place and should Manchester City lose to Manchester United in their derby match on Sunday then they will remain as the top placed side in the league for the first time under Conte.
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This shows the magnitude of the match, and underlines Conte's desire to avoid giving a definitive answer on the fitness of his players. Spurs are set to play a packed schedule of fixtures over the next six weeks ahead of the Qatar World Cup which begins in November, with Conte admitting that there were some concerns about fitness ahead of this run of matches. The Spurs boss explained: "Honestly I don't want to speak about the injury because I don't want to give advantage to Arsenal, yeah?
"But for sure we have to face some problems, some physical problems and we have to know also we have just started to play the first game in a run that we have to play 13 games in 43 days. For sure we have to try to make the best solution and not take big risks. If we take big risks and lose players for the rest of the games, it will be a disaster. To play with three games I need to count on the whole squad."
The players have only just returned from international duty, to play this crucial fixture, and Conte also revealed that it would not be until tomorrow that decisions would be made on some individuals' suitability for this weekend's early kick-off.
He added: "We have to wait tomorrow to check some players because they returned from the national team with some physical problems. Tomorrow will be very important to understand the players we can count on."
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