If ever a face were suited to performative warring it belongs to Antonio Conte, that ice blue stare and chiselled countenance deserve the kind of close-up, cinematic embellishment once bestowed on Clint Eastwood in spaghetti westerns.
Kill or be killed is how Conte understands sport. Though his interpretation is entirely figurative, of course, it has about it the essence of the genre’s totemic offering, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. No matter what your ethical orientation, the name of the game is always the same: winner takes all.
In his nine months in charge, Conte has transformed Spurs from a team that could lose 3-0 at home to Manchester United into a warrior class. “When we start to understand this then we do the next step,” he said after Sunday’s draw.
The result at Chelsea was proof the penny is starting to drop. An equaliser six minutes into added time rescued a point Spurs did not deserve on the evidence of 97 minutes. That is the molecular view. In the wider context, the outcome represented a marked improvement against a team that inflicted four defeats – two in the Premier League, two in the Carabao Cup – on Spurs last term.
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Conte, in common with his continental counterparts, talks a lot about personality, which is the European version of the more familiar British usage of “character”. He also points to the confidence that comes with getting results in the biggest games and that Chelsea are a more evolved unit in this regard having won the Champions League two years ago. “There are levels of confidence when you win a trophy,” he said.
Chelsea paid Spurs the ultimate respect of being at their most committed, “really concentrated against us”, conforming to the Conte axiom that to fight is to be. Without that quality, there is no possibility of winning. Having given Spurs a personality upgrade Conte’s next objective is to give them the belief displayed by Chelsea, who set out expecting to win matches not hoping to do so.
To do this, Conte will need find starting places for Yves Bissouma and Ivan Perisic, if not Richarlison. Bissouma provides the kind of box-to-box heft given Chelsea by N’Golo Kante, who along with Kalidou Koulibaly was the most effective player on the pitch, prior to succumbing to injury. In Perisic, Conte has the kind of cold-eyed executioner he so admires, a player adept at delivering the final pass.
Conte was outmanoeuvred at Stamford Bridge by Thomas Tuchel’s crowding of midfield with Marc Cucurella and Ruben Loftus-Cheek operating as wing backs, pushing in to receive the ball from the centre backs and shutting down space out of possession. This made a huge dent on the capacity of Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski to find room in the final third.
Conte responded in the second half by hooking the ineffective Ryan Sessegnon for Richarlison before the hour and eventually introducing Bissouma and Perisic with 11 minutes remaining. Conte got away with it on this occasion but to make the next step he cannot succeed with a strategy designed to contain.
The arrival of Wolves in north London for Saturday’s early kick-off provides Conte with an opportunity to be more expansive, to stake a claim for the Premier League summit whilst their rivals are idle. Conte succeeded in his first season at Chelsea by recognising the need to change his approach after an early defeat at the Emirates in September.
Whilst grateful for Kane’s first goal of the season, for the point and vibe it returned. Conte knows Spurs cannot rely on caprice to get them home every week. He has a developing squad capable of more and the momentum to make a genuine push for the title. Belief starts with him. If he wants his players to adopt that winning mentality, he must give them the licence to be brave, to take risks, to go for the kill.
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