Eric Dier does not hesitate. The key to the 3-0 home drubbing of Arsenal at the end of last season that propelled Tottenham into the Champions League and pushed their rivals towards fifth place and frustration? “The atmosphere,” the centre-half replies. “That was maybe one of the best atmospheres I’ve played in and it was definitely the best at the new stadium. It felt like the kind of night that the stadium was built for. The atmosphere played a huge, huge part.”
Dier’s answer is unexpected because it was a game in which Spurs bullied their neighbours on a physical level and showed the kind of mentality that Antonio Conte had been desperate to see. Then again, maybe it should not be when considering Spurs’s last few matches, beginning at home to Aston Villa two weeks ago.
