Antonio Conte has appealed for patience after blaming Tottenham’s busy fixture schedule following a second defeat in a week.
Spurs lost their perfect home record in the Premier League on Sunday evening as Newcastle claimed a 2-1 win in north London. Callum Wilson opened the scoring in controversial circumstances after colliding with Hugo Lloris before Miguel Almiron took advantage of some slack defending with a solo goal.
Harry Kane reduced the deficit after the break with a stooping back-post header, but Tottenham couldn’t complete the turnaround. Spurs have now suffered back-to-back defeats following their 2-0 loss against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
In his post-match interview with Sky Sports, Conte refused to criticise the officials for Wilson’s opener. Instead he pointed the finger at Spurs’ schedule after their fourth game in 11 days and highlighted the absences of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Cristian Romero, Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski.
"We are doing our best in every moment,” he said. “Today the commitment was really high. We have to face a difficult situation for us. When you don't have three or four players in the squad you're in trouble.
"We have to manage very well this situation and overcome it together. When you play every three days you need to have a deep, strong squad. We have only just started our process. We are playing in the Champions League. We're trying to improve our situation step by step. You need time and patience. I want to be honest: with my experience, we are doing well but we need the time and patience.
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"If we played one game every six or seven days, we could fight for something important. To play every three days, we have to continue to build our path and have patience. If someone thinks we can invent the win and do a miracle, we need to continue to work.
"If someone doesn't want to listen it's not my problem. Fingers crossed we don't have many injuries. Many injuries can affect our season. When you start this type of process, I can tell the line to follow. We have to finish this period of games and then in January we'll see where we are, which improvement we need.
"Together with the club. The club knows very well. I was very clear in the summer. If we want to play in the Premier League and Champions League you need to improve the squad. When you play, play, play, injuries happen. When three to five players are out it becomes a problem for a team like Tottenham."
Tottenham signed eight players in the summer transfer window with permanent deals for Richarlison, Romero, Yves Bissouma, Djed Spence, Ivan Perisic, Fraser Forster and Destiny Udogie and a loan of Clement Lenglet costing north of £150million.
Despite two straight losses, Spurs remain in third place, two points ahead of Newcastle. They host Sporting Lisbon next in the Champions League on Wednesday before travelling to the south coast to play Bournemouth on Saturday.
