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Danyal Khan

Antonio Conte sends three-word message to Pep Guardiola and Tottenham critics after Man City win

Tottenham manager Antonio Conte has sent a three word message to his side's critics including Pep Guardiola after the Lilywhites' emphatic and unexpected 3-2 win against Manchester City.

The north Londoners came into the affair in Manchester as complete underdogs considering the quality of opposition they were up against.

But Spurs came out on top at the weekend (just as they had done on the opening week of the season) courtesy of a slick attacking performance from the likes of Son Heung-min and Harry Kane, who combined for some impressive play in front of goal.

Son set up new recruit Dejan Kulusevski for the opener before providing an assist for Kane's first of the afternoon to make it 2-1 after Ilkay Gundogan had levelled.

Despite a late Riyad Mahrez penalty, Kulusevski then got involved in the act right at the death to set up Spurs' No.9, who powered his side right back into the top four race after recent wobbly form.

A perfect away performance that was topped off by a solid enough display defensively, bar Hugo Lloris' and Cristian Romero's mishaps for the City goals.

Defensive work that was described by Guardiola post-match as "deep and compact" whilst also stating that he believed that they were a counter-attacking team predominantly.

Antonio Conte congratulates Dejan Kulusevski after the Premier League match win against Manchester City (Stu Forster/Getty Images)

"After going behind, they defended so deep and so compact – it was incredible," the Citizens boss told Match of the Day.

"They don't lose the ball with Harry Kane and can run as well with Son and Kulusevski.

"I think we played well. We created a lot of chances. I can't say anything wrong about the team because we were there all the time. But it was difficult.

"They played the way I expected them to play. They were good in the build-up and created a lot of space to run on the counterattack, but in general we coped well and played a good game.

"Everyone knows what Kane gives. For the first goal we defended the pass inside badly, but after 10 to 15 minutes we created a lot of chances. Lloris was brilliant. We have to score more."

Two days have now passed by since the game and Conte has responded in a brilliant way to Guardiola's counterattacking remark with his own message on his official Instagram account @antonioconte.

When captioning the clip of all Spurs' attacking play in this encounter, Conte questioned the criticisms by writing: 'Counterattacks?!? Maybe not… [followed by three laughing emojis].'

Words that Tottenham fans will love to see as most of the fanbase are rightfully on cloud nine after that enormous win, with Burnley and Leeds on the immediate agenda - a chance to certainly rack up some momentum to potentially hit back at Arsenal and Man United.

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