Conte laments Spurs’ struggles against top teams after United loss

Tottenham Hotspur coach Antonio Conte said his side struggles to compete in games against top Premier League clubs after it was well beaten by Manchester United on Wednesday.

Spurs slipped to a 2-0 defeat at Old Trafford, but the scoreline did not reflect the fact that they were comfortably second best in Manchester, facing 28 shots in the match.

For all their progress this season, Spurs are third in the standings despite the loss, Conte feels his team still let itself down against tougher opponent.

Read: After the thrill of Man City, Klopp is pleased to grind out a victory versus West Ham.

“We have to be honest, United deserved to win,” Conte said. “They started the game very well. In our side, we did not start the game. It was really difficult, because we made a lot of simple mistakes.

“The table is good, but every time we play a high level game, we struggle. I want to be honest — against Chelsea we struggle, we lost against Arsenal and Manchester United we lost.

“In this type of game, I think that you need to arrive and not make big mistakes, with great concentration, great focus. You need to be ready to fight a war, or you die against your opponent. The level is very high, we are struggling.”

Read: Ronaldo’s early departure in Spurs’ victory will now be dealt with by United manager Ten Hag.

Conte, however, is not too worried, and feels his team need time to continue its improvement.

“In only 10 months we cannot pass from ninth place (when he took over) to become title contenders the year after,” he added.

“We do not forget last season. We need to be disappointed. We need to show much more. I think that we can do much better than this today.”