Antonio’s verdict on ‘important win’ at Villa
Sat 09 April 2022, 23:00|
Tottenham Hotspur
Antonio Conte felt it was important to capitalise on results going for us in the battle for a place in the top four of the Premier League with a fine 4-0 win at Aston Villa on Saturday, a match he described as ‘moments where you have not to fail’.
We prepared to kick-off at Villa Park at 5.30pm knowing that Manchester United (1-0 at Everton), Arsenal (2-1 at home to Brighton) and Wolves (1-0 at Newcastle on Friday night) had all lost. West Ham travel to Brentford on Sunday. Antonio said it was vital that we ‘exploit’ those results in our favour.
In the end, we did it in style, with Heung-Min Son’s hat-trick and Dejan Kulusevski’s strike seeing us home as we swept the home side away in the second half.
But that wasn’t the full story, Having gone 1-0 up thanks to an arrow of a volley from Sonny inside five minutes, we came under increased pressure and relied on Hugo Lloris to make a string of fine saves to keep Villa at bay. He made seven in the first half - the most by a Spurs goalkeeper in the first half of a Premier League game since stats were kept by Opta back in 2006/07 - with the pick a tip over from Jacob Ramsey and somehow clawing away Philippe Coutinho’s free-kick.
The run of the game changed though once ‘Deki’ struck for 2-0 on 50 minutes. Sonny added his second from Harry Kane’s flick on 66 and completed his hat-trick on 71, providing the finish a superb team move from back to front deserved.
“It was a good win and to get three points in a moment where our opponents, apart from West Ham, they lost,” reflected Antonio at Villa Park. “It’s important because there are moments in the season, when you fight to win something important, moments where you have not to fail.
“Today, this game was too important. We know very well if we lost against Villa, we continue to stay in fourth, no, we had to exploit that Manchester United, Arsenal, Wolverhampton all lost their games and to improve the situation.
“Also, especially to send a strong message to the others that we are here, we’re in the race, not because we’re lucky, but because we deserved to stay in the race for a place in the Champions League.”
Antonio knew what to expect at Villa Park and told us what was said at half-time. “If someone thinks you play Villa away, with this atmosphere, and you don’t find a tough situation... we were very prepared and showed in the first half great resilience.
“I think we are also improving in the mental aspect, and to suffer in the right moments. Also, in the first half, every time we had the ball, we were good to overcome the pressure and always created danger to Villa.
“After the first half, I said to the guys to stay calm, we tried to correct some things, because between the first and the second half there was too much space between the defensive line and the midfielders, then I said, ‘don’t worry, continue to play’, because if we play, we are very dangerous.
“We have more confidence, sometimes you can suffer (in) the pressure, the atmosphere, but in the second half we showed better football. It was a great win, we have to continue in this way, to work very hard, because the work is paying off.”
