Cristian Stellini said the performance in our 4-1 loss at Leicester City was ‘really difficult to explain’, not least after a bright start and going 1-0 up at the King Power Stadium.
Rodrigo Bentancur gave us the lead from close range after 14 minutes but that proved the highlight for both the team and the Uruguay midfielder, who limped out of the action after suffering a knee injury in the second half.
Leicester hit back with two goals in as many minutes from Nampalys Mendy and James Maddison (23, 25) before the blow of a third from Kelechi Iheanacho seconds before half-time for 3-1 at the break. We couldn’t find a response in the second half and Harvey Barnes had a goal disallowed before adding the fourth late on.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY at the KP, Antonio Conte’s assistant Cristian told us: “Maybe we thought it was easier than normal, but this is the worst mistake you can make in this type of game. It’s really difficult to explain, because after the start we scored, we had a great advantage, also mentally, to create more problems. Maybe, I repeat, we thought it was easier, and that was a mistake.
“We’re disappointed for that, because it’s not the first time it’s happened after a great result, like last season at Burnley (a defeat after beating City athe Etihad). Now, we have to find again the way. We know our players normally react well after a game like this, and we have to be consistent. Also, we have to apologise for that, we don’t want this, we want something different. We started well, but you have to play for 90 minutes.”