Antonio Conte said after the victory against West Ham that he enjoyed watching his team play and that's probably because he's starting to witness his Tottenham Hotspur.
His players were under pressure to win this game to ensure they remained right in the top four race and to break the win-loss-win-loss pattern of much of 2022 and they rose to the challenge. In Premier League games alone, Spurs now have won four out of their past five matches and the surge up the table has come at the perfect time. They now sit in fifth place and three points behind Arsenal, who have one game in hand but also face a trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The Conte blueprint feels like it's in place and being worked to. Even though the international break has arrived to interrupt the momentum, that each game now comes after a free week of preparation - until the Arsenal fixture is finally rescheduled - plays to the Italian's strengths. Sunday brought a crucial win against a West Ham side that had previously give Spurs plenty of problems. This time they were mostly contained, with Hugo Lloris enjoying a second consecutive match in which he had very little to do.
READ MORE: Every word Antonio Conte said on Son's best quality, Kane, 'brilliant' Dane Scarlett and Arsenal
The Hammers would have been tired as the game wore on after their midweek Europa League exploits but Tottenham did much of their undoing of David Moyes' side in the first half.
In all Spurs had more of the possession and sent 17 shots on West Ham's goal, compared to the visitors' six, with just one of theirs on target in front of a noisy crowd of 58,685 who created a great atmosphere.
The attacking trident of Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Dejan Kulusevski continues to strike the perfect balance. It's no coincidence that the latter's arrival has helped free up his fellow attackers.
Lucas Moura has his qualities but he does not create much for his fellow forwards, as his stats bear out. Kulusevski, at just 21, has given Kane and Son a new lease of life.
For Son, you could see his old confidence returning as the game wore on. The most impressive thing about the South Korean superstar during his dip in confidence has been that he has still contributed in front of goal, either through goals or assists, even when his overall performances have not matched his undoubted talent.
He finished his shift in Sunday's match as the old Son, vibrant, smiling and devastating. He enjoys playing against the Hammers. These were his sixth and seventh goals in his past nine starts against them.
In the early stages he had pressured Kurt Zouma into a ninth minute own goal and then hit the right-hand post from Kulusevski's pass, albeit one that was slightly behind him.
His first goal came after a sublime Kane pass and then a shot that was deflected, again by Zouma, up and away from the reach of Lukasz Fabianski and inside the right-hand post.
Son was caught in an awkward spot for West Ham's goal, which came from a corner given away by some loose play by Matt Doherty. Son had originally been tracking Craig Dawson but switched too late to the unmarked Said Benhrama and the Algerian had a free run to volley past Hugo Lloris.
Yet Son kept battling away, stretching West Ham with his pace and his late second goal showed he was back in the groove. It was route one stuff as Lloris launched a long kick upfield and Kane headed it on into the path of Son, who ran through and clinically finished with no hesitation or doubt.
He roared his delight and it was clear how much it meant to him on a personal level but also to help the team pull away from a tight 2-1 scoreline.
The two goals ensured he is now joint second highest scorer in the Premier League with 13 goals and he has a better goal conversation than top scorer Mohamed Salah with 27 per cent to the Liverpool man's 23.
When he came off soon after his second strike, he received a big hug from Conte and another from Spurs' managing director of football Fabio Paratici, who also had a chat with the South Korean with plenty of smiles between the pair. Judging by photos and videos, the pair also seem partial to chats on and around the Hotspur Way training pitches.
football.london reminded Conte of his statement in the week that he would be crazy to drop Son and pointed to this match as the perfect reason why.
The Spurs boss laughed and explained that Son managed a period well when some things were not going his way and that was a sign of his quality.
"It is always very difficult when you have an important player and you know very well that during a season there are different periods and sometimes you have a lot of confidence and everything you try to do on the pitch you are able to do and sometimes the confidence can go down but the important player, the top player is good at managing this moment and Sonny you’re talking about a really, really, player who is really, really good, an important player but at the same time a good person," said the Italian.
"He suffers if the performance is not good but especially if we don’t get three points. I think this must be our first thing, not to think to yourself but to think for the team. I’m playing not so good and it’s a pity for the team not only for yourself, but I repeat about him he is an important player for us and he showed today that he is an important player and I have seen a lot of links between him, Harry [Kane] and [Dejan] Kulusevski but also with Lucas [Moura], Steven Bergwijn and we are working a lot on this aspect."
Conte also deliver an unprompted shout out for another young attacker at the club.
"I'm seeing a lot of improvement today in [Dane] Scarlett honestly I have to tell you," he told football.london. "Seeing that this guy is improving a lot, he's only 17-years-old but I can tell you that he is a really important prospect for Tottenham.
"He has to be patient and work behind these very important players and continue to work in this way because about Scarlett, I can tell you that I see a brilliant future for him."
It was a big pat on the back from another top manager, with Jose Mourinho having done the same last season, and speaks volumes about the belief in the teenager, who is learning from some of the best.
READ MORE: Tottenham player ratings: Super Son shines, creative Kane with disciplined Romero and Bentancur
Scarlett is for the future and Kane is most certainly the present.
The England captain sported a new closely cropped haircut that harked back to his earlier years under Mauricio Pochettino and his long-running partnership with Son continues to thrive. The dynamic duo have now linked up for 39 goals in the Premier League, extending their record. In the past three months, no players have registered more goals and assists combined than Kane (11 and 4) and Son (7 and 3).
Kane's low ball, after Matt Doherty's excellent pressing, brought the Zouma own goal, but the bizarre rule that you don't get an assist for an own goal robbed the 28-year-old of a hat-trick of assists on the day.
Kane's pass for Son's first goal was remarkable and displayed the beautiful side of his playmaker ability while his flicked-on header for the final goal of the night showcased his ability to do the battling, ugly side of the game. He also missed a couple of chances himself, a lob over the crossbar from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's clever chipped ball and a low shot saved by Fabianski.
It wasn't just about the attackers though. Both Rodrigo Bentancur and Hojbjerg controlled the midfield and their partnership is blossoming nicely.
In particular the Uruguayan is getting better and better. He produced one moment in the second half that evoked memories of Mousa Dembele. It was the coolest, calmest yet scariest pirouette on the edge of his own box. Two West Ham players were sent the wrong way while everyone in the stadium held their breath for a moment.
Bentacur's stats said it all, with 103 touches of the ball, 100 per cent of his tackles won, 100 per cent of accurate long balls, 100 per cent of his take-ons successful and 94.7 per cent pass accuracy with his 94 passes. He also made two key tackles and one interception.
His pass to Kane in the build-up to Spurs' second goal was so pinpoint it took Declan Rice out of the game as the West Ham and England midfielder mistakenly believed he could stretch out and intercept it.
The 24-year-old Uruguay international has settled in quickly at Spurs and his contagious composure is spreading to his team-mates who all feel comfortable in giving him the ball in tight spaces. It's no coincidence that Tottenham are playing the ball out from the back far better now than at any other period during the season.
Behind him the defence ensured Lloris had barely anything to do. However, their main frustration will be conceding again from a free-kick, with set pieces having accounted for four of the past nine goals they have let in in the Premier League.
One defender who will have caught Conte's eye in a good way was Cristian Romero.
The Spurs boss had told football.london ahead of the game that he wanted better focus from the 23-year-old Argentine for the entirety of matches, especially when it came to preventing himself picking up so many yellow cards.
Romero is just two bookings away from a two-game suspension. He needs to reach the cut-off point which comes after the Brighton home game next month for his eight Premier League yellow cards to be wiped out.
You would have bet on him picking up one in a derby against West Ham but instead he was the epitome of calm and showed the growing maturity of someone who has become a father for the first time in recent months.
Romero bossed his duel with the bustling Michail Antonio, normally a real handful for Spurs, and used the ball with the utmost composure whenever he came out of defence with it.
What will have left Spurs bewildered is that Romero has now been called up by Argentina, even though he has a two match FIFA suspension after that incident in Brazil last year. His national side, who have already qualified for the World Cup, are hoping that his ban gets cut in half.
Tottenham and Conte will be keeping everything crossed that their talented centre-back does not return from international duty this time with an injury.
In Sunday's game, referee Anthony Taylor and VAR also appeared to miss what seemed to be an unpleasant forearm smash by Antonio into the right cheek of Eric Dier in the first half which could have been really bad news for the already head-bandaged Tottenham centre-back.
He and Spurs' backline weren't the only ones defending on the pitch. Credit must also go to the stewards who reacted quickly to stop protestors attaching themselves to the goal posts as one had done at Everton on Thursday night.
Two were stopped as they neared the West Ham goal in front of the south stand and another two were prevented at the other end, one not even making it past the barrier. There were suggestions from some Spurs fans in that north stand that a fifth protestor was also stopped.
For Antonio Conte, he finished the game with the fans singing his name and he applauded all corners of the ground.
If he can guide Tottenham into the top four after taking over a fragmented mess of a club then it will be one of his greatest achievements as a manager, despite his long list of silverware.
"I am enjoying a lot the work I am doing with these players, with Tottenham because for sure I have taken in this moment a level lower than the top team that there are in this league, but I’m enjoying a lot to see the improvement," he said.
"Today honestly I said to my players I want to enjoy seeing you play football and now I am seeing we are a really good team. Now I am ready to play every game and to play against every opponent and I’m sure that today is a very difficult to play against us."
He added: "I have seen great improvement about the mentality but also technically and tactically. About the mentality, we are starting to understand how to manage 95 minutes in different way and today when West Ham tried in the first minutes of the second half to try to push us and increase the intensity we overcome this period and controlled the game. This means we are improving also in the mentality and to understand the importance to win the game, to manage many parts of the game.
"I'm seeing a lot of improvement and I'm happy for my players because the staff and I, we worked very hard and try to push every day the players because the only way to improve the team and level of every single player and it has happened in Tottenham because the level of every single player is improving and in this way the team is becoming a strong team."
Conte also mentioned that he would like to have played Chelsea again at this stage to measure the level of his team compared to where they were when they suffered those three defeats in January.
That's the growing confidence of a head coach who can see his work producing results.
Conte will now head off to Italy for a few days for a special trip - the chance to spend some much-needed family time with his wife Elisabetta and daughter Vittoria.
The pair still live in Italy because 14-year-old Vittoria is in her final years of secondary school and her parents did not want to uproot her at that stage, meaning Conte has been spending some difficult time away from his loved ones, relying on visits whenever they can.
Conte and his players will take the next couple of days to themselves before spending a week hard at work and then another few days to rest up before the preparations begin for the next game at home against Newcastle.
"Honestly it’s a pity to have the international break because in this moment we are in good form, in a good moment about the results, the performance, but I know very well there is an international break and with the players that have to go with the national team we will see them after nine days, ten days but with the others we prepared two different situations of rest," said the Spurs head coach.
"Before two days to rest and then to work and then other two days to rest and start work again, but for sure we want to try to exploit this period for those not going with their international teams to try to continue to improve on the technical and tactical aspect."
Tottenham and Conte are in a good place and they're starting to build some momentum at the perfect time.
Spurs' goal difference has soared from minus one to a positive 11, now better than that of Manchester United, West Ham and Wolves and two behind Arsenal.
Conte is trying to spread his mentality to Tottenham and they have to look at their April fixtures against Newcastle, Aston Villa, Brighton, Brentford and Leicester as ones they can and need to win.
Every victory would pile the pressure on Arsenal, who travel to Crystal Palace and then face Brighton, Southampton, Chelsea and Manchester United during the April period.
Whoever maintains their stability will come out on top and the coming weeks will show just how much of Antonio Conte is rubbing off on Tottenham Hotspur.
