Antonio Conte made it clear back in January that Tottenham's three defeats against Chelsea only highlighted the huge gulf between the sides. Losing 3-0 against the Blues last September during Nuno Espirito Santo's ill-fated Spurs tenure, their pairing in the Carabao Cup semi-finals meant that the rivals would face each other three times at the turn of the year.
Losing 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of the semi-final after a disastrous start to proceedings, the Lilywhites crashed out of the competition one week later after a 1-0 defeat on home soil. 11 days on and the teams met again but this time in the Premier League, with Chelsea securing another win over Tottenham.
Indicating in his post-match press conference that he was proud of the team's performance despite their 2-0 loss, Conte admitted that three successive defeats at the hands of Thomas Tuchel showed that Chelsea were on "another level" compared to his side. Given Spurs' struggles at the hands of the Blues, not many would have predicted that Tottenham would finish the season in fourth and only three points behind Chelsea in the final standings.
