Conte praises Spurs’ attitude despite loss

ANTONIO CONTE grumbled about poor finishing, injuries and the fixture schedule as a second straight defeat undermined Tottenham’s start to the season. It has been a damaging week for Conte’s ambitions but he refused to criticise his players, instead praising their character. ‘Every single player performed,’ he said. ‘The attitude and effort was really strong but sometimes it is not enough to avoid a loss. ‘Before they scored, I have seen only one team. It was Tottenham and Nick Pope made two or three amazing saves. If we had better finishing we could score.’ Tottenham’s players thought Callum Wilson’s first-half opener should have been ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper Hugo Lloris. ‘I don’t want to comment on the referee’s decision, but for sure we can do much better in this situation. Just a couple of minutes later we concede a second goal and this could kill everybody, but I am happy to see a good reaction from my players. In this situation, there’s a risk you lose your head and concede lots.’

Conte, whose team are third, five points behind leaders Arsenal, was without PierreEmile Hojbjerg and Cristian Romero against Newcastle, as well as longer-term absentees Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison. He is concerned about the casualty list ahead of a vital European tie against Sporting Lisbon.

He added: ‘We have to try to keep the fingers crossed and don’t have injuries because we are not a team with such a depth of squad to face competitions like the Premier League and Champions League.’