Antonio Conte and his Tottenham team have heaped the pressure on Arsenal going into the final two games of the season following their 3-0 North London Derby victory. Knowing a defeat would see them miss out on Europe's premier competition for the third successive campaign, Spurs secured the bragging rights with a double from Harry Kane and a strike from Son Heung-min putting their rivals to the sword.
The derby triumph means Tottenham are now one point behind Arsenal with two games to play. The Gunners still have their destiny very much in their own hands, although any slip-ups against Newcastle United and Everton and Tottenham will be waiting to pounce with Burnley and Norwich City to come.
Facing an uphill battle to secure Champions League football back in November with the team so poor on the pitch and sliding down the table at the end of Nuno Espirito Santo's reign, the appointment of Conte saw a drastic improvement as they got themselves back on track. However, their inconsistent form in the first two months of 2022 always threatened to ruin their top-four aspirations.
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A prime example came at the end of February after the team succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at Burnley days after a stunning 3-2 win at league leaders Man City. Set to come up against the Clarets this weekend, Conte has made it clear that his players should be proud to still be in Champions League contention going into the penultimate weekend after such an improvement in N17.
"For sure this is a possibility. In this moment, I think to fight for a place in the Champions League is a big achievement for us, but at the same time, maybe we can fight to stay for a place in the Europa League. We are doing something important for this club and in England it’s not easy to play for a place in the Champions League," explained the Italian.
"For sure, for Manchester United haven’t made it and for us it’s very difficult to fight for the top four. We had to be honest and say there was a lot of room for improvement. We can still arrive finishing fourth or fifth but it’s a good achievement, both places. In England, you say the club is in a transition moment and for sure there is a lot of space for improvement if we want to fight for a place in the Champions League, to be a contender to fight for the title.
"We need to improve a lot, a lot, to improve the quality of our squad and the numbers in our squad. At this moment, we are fighting with 14 players and 14 players is a tiny squad. For this reason, we have to be proud. The players have to be proud because the players made a great improvement and they deserve to play for a place in the Champions League.
"Our target is this because we know very well that Champions League changes your life, for the club, the fans, the manager, the players. The players want to play the best competition, the manager wants to play the best competition and for this reason I repeat I’m very happy for the improvement we have, but it's not enough, not enough.
"It’s not in our hands, the qualification is in the hands of Arsenal because if they win their two games then they play in the Champions League. We have to be ready to exploit it if they don’t win the two games, but my players deserve to have the chance to fight for a place in the Champions League because we show in this season that we are much better than the others."
Helped by the January additions of Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski from Juventus, as well as Cristian Romero's return from a three-month absence due to a hamstring issue sustained on international duty, another huge factor to Tottenham's drastic improvement has been their mean defensive record. Settling on his preferred back three of Romero, Eric Dier and Ben Davies, the wing-backs in Conte's system have tended to change regularly due to injury and form.
However, that has not impacted them across the backline as their three central defenders, led expertly by Dier, have formed such an understanding to make life incredibly difficult for their opponents. Also making life a lot easier for the likes of Kane and Son in attack as a result by not shipping as many goals and taking away that pressure on them of having to get two or three goals needed to win a game, Tottenham have only conceded five in their last nine Premier League games.
There have been four clean sheets recorded in that time, with the team not conceding more than one goal in a game since their 3-2 defeat against Manchester United in March. Always set to see an improvement at the back with Conte at the helm given his previous work at Chelsea and Inter Milan, the head coach has given them a stable platform to build from and Spurs have done just that and climbed the table in the process.
Offering next to nothing in attack and also looking very vulnerable at the back towards the end of Espirito Santo's spell as boss, Tottenham have made great strides under Conte and look a totally different side. Certainly one of his first concerns when he walked in through the door, the personnel has not exactly changed in defence in the seven months since the managerial change with the Lilywhites not bringing in a centre-back in January.
Romero and Dier were the Portuguese's first-choice centre-back pairing in his back four, with the duo remaining in the team but now joined by Davies in a back three. Emerson Royal and Sergio Reguilon were the full-backs for Espirito Santo and they have had plenty of football in the months after his departure, although Matt Doherty and Ryan Sessegnon did appear to make the positions their own from February onwards until injury struck.
Tottenham's attack have dominated the headlines in recent months with Kulusevski, Kane and Son pivotal to their good form, but the backline also deserve a huge amount of credit for nullifying their opponents and allowing the attackers to go on and do what they do best. Two more shutouts against Burnley and Norwich City are now in order as Spurs look to put themselves in the best position possible to capitalise on any potential slip-up from Arsenal.
