Antonio Conte calls for patience after sorry Spurs humbled by Chelsea
- News Feeds
- 6 January 2022
Tottenham boss admits former club Chelsea highlighted how much work there is to do to catch up with the top clubs in the Premier League.
Antonio Conte has asked for patience after admitting Tottenham were comprehensively beaten by Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.
Chelsea won the first leg of the semi-final 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night thanks to Kai Havertz and a Ben Davies own goal.
Spurs were two down at half time and, although they put in an improved second-half showing, Conte admitted the game had shown just how much work lies ahead of him after a good start at the club.
"We need to have patience because there is a lot, a lot of a job to do, in many aspects," Comte said.
"Because in the last few years the level of Tottenham has dropped, and dropped a lot. And now we have to rebuild, and we need to have patience and more time
"We are working a lot, to try to fight in this league, but in this moment we are in the middle.
"That's our situation, we are in the middle. Not up, not down, we are in the middle."
Despite the defeat it is still all to play for in the upcoming second leg, although Conte was humble enough to concede his former side Chelsea were much stronger on the night.
"It was a difficult game, difficult from the start, Chelsea showed to be much better than us.
"The first half, we struggled a lot from the start but we know that we are talking about one of the best teams in Europe, in the world, last season they won the Champions League. If you compare the two teams there is not a comparison. We are talking about a team ready to win - today we have seen the difference between the two teams.
"It is not easy to play at Stamford Bridge, the way they were very concentrated, they won the ball every time and then we conceded also a goal we were unlucky. When you start the game and after a few minutes they score, for sure the game becomes very difficult.
"But, I know the situation, it is very clear in this moment there is an important gap. We have to try to fight to stay in the league in a good position, but if we think we are close, I think we are not in the right way."
