Antonio Conte jogged Jurgen Klopp's memory after the Liverpool manager's sourpuss reaction to their last meeting and reminded him: “We cost you the title.”
Tottenham's head coach was in a conciliatory mood and waxed lyrical about the empire Klopp has built at Anfield, until he revisited the 1-1 draw on Merseyside six months ago which cost the Kop dearly on the run-in.
In an unguarded moment of grumpiness, Klopp scowled: “I don't like this kind of football, but that's my problem. I cannot coach it. I think they are world-class and they should do more for the game – world-class players block all the balls.”
Asked if Liverpool's German messiah had been ungracious after a damaging deadlock which handed Manchester City the advantage, Conte agreed: “Yeah, but if you remember he lost the Premier League for this result.
“I understood his frustration. They lost the title for these two points (dropped). But you know, instead we reached the Champions League with that draw.
“It’s OK, every coach has to speak for his team – and for every coach it’s important to understand the best strategy to reach a good result. Honestly, I have seen again the last game we played against Liverpool and, if there was a team that deserved to win, it was Tottenham, not Liverpool.
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“But I understand after a game when you felt you lost the Premier League to say something wrong against another team, but he has said sorry because he understood. No problem for me. When you are angry, it's very difficult sometimes to control your emotion.
“First of all, I think that Liverpool have to be proud because in the last five years they were the big, big rivals for Manchester City. Without Liverpool, I think City could do in the same way like Juventus was in Italy (nine Serie A titles in a row).
“For this reason, they have to be proud to reach this level and I think they improved a lot in these years. Sure, they spent money, but Klopp has changed Liverpool and the club gave him the possibility to invest.
“We are talking about an important club in the world with the possibility to spend a lot of money, but it’s important to spend the money in the right way. Sometimes you can sign players for £50million, £60m, £80m, £100m, £120m - that happened in the past and you wasted your money.”
Meanwhile, Conte – relieved to reach the Champions League knockout phase while he served a one-match ban on the naughty step in Marseille - will be without the injured Heung-min Son, Richarlison and Cristian Romero this weekend.
The South Korean forward had surgery on Friday on the quadruple fracture to his eye socket suffered in Tuesday's tense 2-1 win in the Stade Velodrome in a bid to save his World Cup dream.
But Conte was scathing about the “crazy” fixture either side of the tournament, claiming the game's governing bodies were putting the “show” ahead of player welfare. The fiery Italian has been an ardent critic of a schedule requiring two games a week and is angered by the EFL squeezing in the Carabao Cup fourth round before Christmas – and just days after the World Cup final.
He said: "Many times I hear about the welfare of the players, but they are not really worried about the welfare of the players if the schedule is this.
"In every moment, they show that the most important thing is the show must go on. Please, I don't want to hear in the future, to listen about people speaking about the welfare of the players because this is not true.
"Honestly, it is really strange in England that we start to play three days after the final of the World Cup. We are the only country to do it. Italy, France, Spain and Portugal and other countries, they are taking time to give players rest and to breathe a bit. The show must go on, this is the truth, but honestly I don't like it."
