Matt Doherty has warned Arsenal that Tottenham have clicked under Antonio Conte and says they are not feeling the pressure of moving into fourth place.
Spurs leapfrogged their rivals on goal difference with a 5-1 demolition of Newcastle yesterday, leaving the Gunners needing to respond in the first of their two games in hand against Crystal Palace tonight.
Conte’s side were wildly inconsistent at the start of the year but they have now won three League games on the bounce and are building momentum for the run-in, which includes Arsenal’s visit in the still-to-be-rearranged north London derby.
“We don’t feel the pressure, we are feeling the excitement, we feel really confident at the moment, we feel like everybody is on top of their game,” Doherty told Standard Sport. “We are going into games thinking we are going to win, to the point where we just can’t wait to play the next game.
“It shoots us into the top four, we have done our job, we have had an inspired display [against Newcastle], especially in the second half. But we just have to look after our own games, we know we still have to play Arsenal.
“We are going to think for every game of the season that it is a must-win game and we can’t afford to slip up. It’s nice that we have done our job first this weekend — and let’s just see if the result goes our way tonight.”
Asked if something has clicked under Conte, Doherty added: “For sure. He wants us to play a certain type of football and you can see that we are doing that. It is really exciting football and we look a real threat going forward, we look solid, although I know we conceded yesterday. We are carrying out what he wants us to carry out and he will be pretty happy with that performance.
“We are in a really good rhythm. The second half was electric. We knew that at half-time, we said just to stay calm, trust in our ability, trust our process and the chances would come. But it looked in the second half like we might score every time, it was pretty exciting.”
Spurs trailed to Fabian Schar’s opportunistic free-kick, but Ben Davies equalised four minutes later to ensure the sides went in level at the interval.
Led by the sublime Harry Kane, Spurs ripped through the Magpies in the second half, with the England captain crossing for Doherty to make it 2-1 and involved in a superb team move for Heung-min Son’s goal. Emerson Royal and substitute Steven Bergwijn added gloss with Spurs’ fourth and fifth goals.
