antonio conte happy
What did you make of that performance from your team?
About the performance, I’m not disappointed. I’m not disappointed because we knew that the game could be really difficult because Arsenal is a really, really strong team and also tonight showed that they deserve to stay top of the league, they deserve to be title contenders. In my opinion Arsenal and City are the only two teams that can fight for the Premier League this season. At the same time I’m a bit disappointed for the way we lost. I think we started well, with the right intensity and the right focus, but then we conceded a goal and after this goal we created an important chance with Sonny and I think the Arsenal keeper made a fantastic save. Instead of going 1-1, we went 2-1 as we then we conceded another goal. After the 2-0 I think that this bad result could kill everybody, instead I’ve seen a great reaction from my team. In the second half we played well, we played with the right intensity, we created chances to score. I think if we scored after a few minutes in the second half I think the situation could be difficult for them. But we created chance to try to score. At the same time we didn’t lose our mind, our head. At this point of the game the risk is to lose your head and concede other goals and to finish with a really, really bad defeat. Instead I think we have to be disappointed for the bad result but at the same time I saw a big effort from my players.
Now we have to move on. We know that on Thursday we have to go to play another difficult game against City, against the other team I consider will fight for the title.
We have to work, to continue to work and recover players. Today was good to see again Kulusevski. I was taking a bit of risk to put him in the starting XI, as he had only had three days in training sessions with us. It was good to see Richarlison back in the last 20 minutes. It was good to see that Rodrigo Bentancur is very close to coming back in the team.
About Lucas Moura, this is the only critical situation because it’s very difficult to understand if he is going to come quickly or we have to wait a long time.
On this side, in this situation with these type of injuries, I think we discovered and exploited the situation to give a chance to young players like Pape Sarr, Gil and Skipp again after a really bad injury. Also for Tanganga it was important to play. Now we know that in the squad you can count also on these young players. You know these young players need to develop and work but at the same time they are improving and they deserve to have minutes.
You said you would be in trouble if you start doubting your important players like Hugo Lloris. He’s had two errors in two home games now against Aston Villa and today, does your faith in him remain as strong as it was?
In this situation it’s always difficult. I think that it’s not positive to be focused on only one situation or two situation. Football I know is this and sometimes you can do positive and save many situations positively but honestly I consider Hugo one of the best keepers in the world and it can happen. It can happen that sometimes you can make a mistake. For sure when there is the mistake of the keeper it is more visible. Hugo for us is a one of the players who is really important for the dressing room, for his personality because we are talking about a player who is one of the best keepers in the world.
Did you see what happened with the fan kicking Aaron Ramsdale at the end? What are your thoughts on it?
I didn’t see it but before I was asked about it in an interview with the media. If it happened, this situation is not good. It’s not positive. I think in every moment you have to show respect. If we want respect we have to show respect. Honestly I didn’t see it it, but if it happened this situation then for sure I didn’t like it.
