Dejan Kulusevski wants a statement win against Manchester City that kickstarts Tottenham’s season, lifts ailing boss Antonio Conte’s spirits and, on a personal level, helps him continue proving wrong those who doubted him in Italy.
The 22-year-old, who is on an 18-month loan from Juventus, had struggled for game time in Turin prior to his switch to Spurs. And he admits a sense of revenge in part fuelled his highly impressive first few months in north London.
Now he is hoping he and his team-mates can rekindle the form they showed in that second half of last season and put behind them the inconsistency that has proved costly this time out.
Asked why things had clicked so quickly for him in north London, Kulusevski said: “It’s a little bit of everything. The environment is fantastic here, with all the boys being very good people, very easy to come into this group, fantastic people.
“Then amazing staff. Italians, mostly, so I felt at home. I can always speak Italian with them so it felt a little bit like home. And then me, of course, I had a lot of revenge in my head.
"That’s all I wanted, to show people what I could do, so I came here with, not asking too many questions, but just doing exactly everything they told me to do. That’s what I did and that’s what I have to keep doing. And not forget where I came from.
“In the last months, I didn’t play so much [for Juventus]. So there was a lot of anger and I didn’t like where my football was going, it was just revenge from that.”
Kulusevski reckons his first start for Spurs, the 3-2 win at the Etihad last February in which he scored after four minutes, was one of his all-time favourite games.
And today he sees no reason why his side can’t continue their impressive recent record against Pep Guardiola’s men even though they have struggled against Big Six opponents.
He added: “In all the big games this season, we haven’t been good enough. That’s why we are fifth. These are the best games but we have to start winning them because it shows in the table.
“And if you win this, you get also a lot of momentum and that’s what we need. These are the months that are the most important of the season. So if it’s time to go on a push, it’s now. We are just waiting on that big statement win.”
Boss Conte underwent a successful gallbladder operation on Wednesday. And Kulusevski said: “We have a lot of responsibilities to play for him. Even when he is not here we have to do what he has taught us. If he is not there and we win, he will be the happiest man on Earth.”
