Antonio previews Leeds

Antonio Conte recognises both teams’ need for maximum points when we clash with Leeds United at Elland Road on Saturday (12.30pm UK).

Both sides go into the game off the back of midweek defeats – us 1-0 at Burnley and Leeds 6-0 at Liverpool – and on a similar run of form, having each lost four of the last five Premier League games.

For our Head Coach, it’s important to ensure we overcome the challenges posed to us by the hosts in order to return to winning ways.

“It’s not easy to play against Leeds, it’s a difficult team, they are in a period that they’ve had many defeats, like us, and it’ll be for sure a tough game for both teams,” he told Spurs TV.

“We have to try to get the best in this game and it’s the same for them.

“They have a proper style of football and they have a really good coach – Marcelo Bielsa is a really top coach.

“I remember very well my first game against them (in November), we were losing 1-0 and then we were good to come back and to win the game 2-1. For sure, it will be a tough game but as you know very well, (there are) no easy games in England.”

He added in his press conference: “The atmosphere will be very hard. It’s a tough game but at the same time we have to take experience about the last game against Burnley and to understand why we lost.”

Saturday’s outing represents the third of four consecutive matches in the north of the UK in 11 days for us, with an away FA Cup tie against Middlesbrough still to come on Tuesday night.

Antonio admits that amount of travelling does bring its challenges in terms of logistics and the training schedule, but says we’re taking it in our stride: “It's not easy, it's not simple to have a lot of travel and to play every three days but the schedule is this and we have to respect this schedule,” he said.