Richarlison has ‘no fear’

Conte tips forward to shine in first derby

Tottenham boss antonio Conte is backing fearless Richarlison to thrive in the hostility of his first north London derby, days after the Brazilian forward was targeted by racist abuse in France.

‘You are talking about a player who has no fear,’ said Conte ahead of today’s short trip to arsenal.

‘he is a player that in every moment, also during the training sessions, shows great commitment but for sure the first thing I see in him is he has no fear.

‘he is not scared about nobody. not about the atmosphere, about the noise. he is really strong. on the pitch also with the opponent... it’s difficult to play against him. Because he has no fear.’

Richarlison has proved an instant success at Spurs after his £52million move from everton.

the 25-year-old scored his first two goals for his new club in a 2-0 win against marseille in the Champions League last month. he was also on target with three goals in two games for his country during the international break, in Brazil’s friendlies against Ghana last Friday and tunisia on tuesday.

as Richarlison celebrated his goal in the 19th minute against tunisia in Paris, he was pelted with missiles thrown from the crowd, including a banana.

tottenham will face an improved arsenal this weekend according to Conte.

While Conte and opposite number mikel arteta have traded barbs in the past, the Italian was full of praise for the job done by the ex-Gunners captain prior to this latest encounter.

‘I think if I see what happened at arsenal, they’re a club who backed arteta over the years,’ Conte noted.

‘You’re seeing when you trust a person, and arsenal showed this also in a tough period with arteta (by) backing him in every moment, now they’re having good results. Last season, don’t forget they were in the Champions League (places) in the last three games.’

arteta is confident that arsenal have learned the lessons from last season’s damaging derby defeat at Spurs, which sparked their late collapse in the top-four race.

the Gunners headed across north London in may, knowing victory would have secured their return to the Champions League.

But arteta’s side imploded, losing 3-0 after Rob holding was sent off during the first half, to allow Spurs back into the top-four hunt.

arteta believes his side won’t make the same mistakes again in today’s lunchtime clash.

‘It’s a different context,’ he said. ‘We went into that game with many different circumstances, in terms of players we had available, not available, had to play that game, what happened during the game.

‘You take the lessons, you learn from it and you move on, that’s it.’ Kick-off: 12.30pm, Emirates Stadium. TV: LIVE BT Sport 1. Referee: Anthony Taylor.