Antonio Conte has declared that his Tottenham Hotspur side will continue his trend of managing the most attacking sides in football.
Conte has a reputation for creating defensively sound teams but at the other end of the pitch his Tottenham side have scored 51 goals in 2022, more than any other Premier League team. When it was put to the 53-year-old Italian that numbers like that disproved any suggestions that he was simply a defensive-minded coach, he was only to eager to help shoot down that idea.
"The stats speak very clearly and in every team that I trained, we were always the first or the second best attacking team. My football is attacking football," he said. "Our idea is to score one more goal than the other, for sure. I know that to win something important, to lift trophies, you need to have a good balance offensively and defensively.
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"Usually the ones who lift trophies don’t concede a lot of goals, usually they have the best defence. For me, in this year to score so many goals it’s ok, it’s ok, because it shows that my team, my players understood what I want, to score with many players is important. At the same time to have players like Sonny and Harry, now also Richy, it’s important because you know at the end of the season they are going to score many, many goals and they are vital for a team.
"At the same time, it’s important to involve all the team in our attacking football and we do this and we want to continue to do this, to continue the football I implemented eight months ago."
He added: "My message [to the fans] is always the same. We will do our best. We do our best for the fans, for the club, and for ourselves. Everyday we work very hard and the game is the final part of the whole week.
"The message is we want to give everything for the game but not only this game. It has to be normality. In every game we have to give our best and 100 per cent."
This Sunday, Conte's ever-improving Tottenham side, fresh from a summer that has so far brought six new signings to the club, will face Chelsea. The Blues beat Spurs comfortably over four matches last season, two Premier League games and two legs of their Carabao Cup semi-final.
At the time the Italian said there was an "important gap" between the two teams then, but now he does not believe his players should be embarrassed by their performances in the last campaign and instead they should have plenty more belief this time around at Stamford Bridge.
"To feel embarrassed, I don't think so. You have to be embarrassed if you don't work. If you are lazy. If you don't give 100 per cent," he said. "For sure, I can assure you, that last season we tried to give everything in the three games that Tottenham played against Chelsea with me as a coach.
"Honestly, last season, it was the period when I was really frustrated because for me it was not normal to lose three games in a row in only two weeks, against the same team. My players tried to give everything but for injuries and a lot of situations, we had only been working together for two months, it was very very difficult to reach a good result against Chelsea.
"Now on Sunday the situation is different. We worked for eight months together. We improved the team because we finished in the top four and to do that wasn't easy but we showed we deserved it. We play Champions League. The belief now is different.
"We don't have the injuries we did last season, but for sure we are going to play against a top team. We want to try to show that we are going in the right way to face this type of team with ambition - not only to fight. With ambition. It will be very important for us."
Chelsea are going through a rebuild right now after losing a string of experienced players amid the uncertainty of their recent takeover but the Blues have been splashing the cash with the arrivals of Raheem Sterling, Marc Cucurella and Kalidou Koulibaly. Conte is not paying attention though to what is happening outside of N17.
"We have to go on our way and not look at the others. This is not the right way to make comparisons with other clubs and other teams," he said. "For sure it’s different. There are clubs that can invest more money into the transfer market but it doesn’t mean you are going to win.
"The best example was Manchester United last season with Ronaldo, Varane and Sancho. They finished second without these three top players. Then they finished sixth. It doesn’t mean if you spend a lot of money you are going to win. It is important to spend in the right way and to understand the capacity of the club to spend money.
"If you have 200 or 300 million every season to spend, then you can go to another club that doesn’t have the capacity to do this. It’s important to spend money in the right way with common sense and to try to sign players with specific characteristics that are right for your team."
One player who is no longer at Chelsea is Romelu Lukaku, a striker Conte knows well after winning the Serie A title with him at Inter in the 2020/21 season. The Belgian striker is now back at Inter on loan after struggling during that £97.5m move back to London and Conte gave his take on why it did not work for the player.
"We are talking about a big amount of money for a player and I think we are talking about a really important striker in the world, but sometimes it happens a situation outside of football and I think Romelu lived two years in Milan and he was the king," he said. "The fans showed him a lot of passion and I think he’s a guy who needs this and for this reason, I think he wanted to come back in Milan, but for sure, the signing was a good signing for Chelsea.
"Then, you know very well there are players that needed more time to make an impact, and maybe….but for sure he was a good signing for Chelsea."
He added: "We are talking about a player who came back to Chelsea and now he is on loan at Inter for this season, but for sure he has the potential to play in the Premier League. I remember very well when he started to play last season he played really well and you in the media said Lukaku is really strong.
"A lot of things can happen and drop the confidence. I know for sure he is a bit disappointed with his impact, because he wanted to have another impact in England, but he has time. Now it's right for him to play for an important club in Italy to try to get again confidence in himself, but we are talking about a really important, a really good striker."
Some pundits have been claiming that Spurs will finish above Chelsea as they rebuild following the end of the Roman Abramovich era but Conte thinks it would be foolish to leave the Blues out of the conversation when it comes to the top teams in the Premier League this season.
"I don’t know why [they have been overlooked] because we are talking about one of the best teams in England, in Europe and in the world. Last season they won the Club World Cup," he said. "I’m sure Chelsea have potential, they are doing well in the transfer market, making good signings. The club is strong. I don’t understand why someone cannot believe in Chelsea. It’s difficult for me to understand."
On his own time at Stamford Bridge, he added: "For sure I spent two important years in Chelsea that I enjoyed a lot. In two years we won the Premier League and then the FA Cup. We also lost the final in the FA Cup. For me it was my first experience in England and everything was new for me but I enjoy a lot that time.
"Yeah, I bring with me a good feeling. I have seen the Abramovich era has finished but this person brought the team, the club to become one of the best clubs in the world. I was pleased to be part of the history of Chelsea and the Abramovich era. At the same time to give him two trophies."
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