Nothing is ever easy at Spurs, Antonio...
Flying start then a comeback but Conte gets the victory in his Tottenham debut
ANTONIO CONTe paced the touchline, fiddled with his belt, gesticulated like a man possessed. Above, Daniel Levy shifted nervously in his seat.
And so the bold new era at Tottenham begins. Clinging on from 3-0 up, at home to a team sitting fifth in the Dutch league. Conte is the second title-winning Chelsea manager charged with restoring pride to Spurs, meaning there is only Carlo Ancelotti left, Ted Drake having passed in 1995.
This is in many ways Levy’s last and biggest gamble. If appointing the serial winner Conte does not work, where does he go? He had perilously little time to prepare but, even so, this will have acquainted him with the size of the task.
Tottenham raced to a 3-0 lead, were hauled back to 3-2, went down to ten men and only regained some semblance of control in the last few minutes when Vitesse were reduced to nine men. First when captain Danilho Doekhi walked for a second bookable offence, clumsily manhandling Harry Kane, then when keeper Markus Schubert was judged to have handled outside the area, charging down an attack by emerson Royal. It looked a little unfortunate, as if he had been flinching more than saving, but there is no VAR in UeFA’s least special club competition, so referee Marco Di Bello’s decision was final. Schubert’s replacement, Jeroen Houwen, made a fine late save from Giovanni Lo Celso.
So Tottenham passed their first test under Conte’s management, just. Hugo Lloris was forced to make more good saves than should have been necessary and the defence looks so vulnerable. Conte has only been able to observe training due to work permit complications and is inheriting a mess not of his making.
Yet Tottenham can’t afford to lose touch with the battle for Champions League places and nobody wants to tread the Conference League path again. It is everton on Saturday, so Conte has to think quick.
Son Heung-min has now played under three newly appointed managers at Spurs, and scored the first goal for each one of them. No wonder Conte put out a stronger team than usual for a UeFA Conference League fixture.
The Korean said: ‘That’s not important. I’m trying to help the team. That’s the most important thing. Without team-mates, you can’t score.
‘The most important thing is the three points. We made it hard. We had to suffer as a team.