At the end of this hazy, fun, end-of-term romp Antonio Conte could be seen striding out across the Carrow Road turf to join his players in front of the Tottenham support, who had spent the last hour basking and lolling and running through their repertoire of songs, serenading not just the players or the excellent transport links now in place for any potential trip back to Woolwich for their north London neighbours, but above all Conte himself.
Conte had come to Norfolk sporting a kind of narrow-boat chic, blue leather yacht shoes, nautical slacks, navy sweater. As the players celebrated he moved among the white shirts like a general in the field, with a hug here, slap of the chest there, a barked word of praise. The Tottenham fans sang his name again. And in that moment the whole afternoon seemed to turn a shade of Antonio.
Spurs will now return to the Champions League after two years away, a moment that might just end up a key note in the club’s modern history. And for Conte this is a tangible feat of coaching on the hoof, albeit one that now poses its own questions to Tottenham’s owners.
For now, this was an afternoon when everything went right here for Spurs. At Carrow Road they met a Norwich team who weren’t so much thinking about the beach as already dozing under a parasol with a detective novel over their eyes.
By the end it had become a stroll, a beano on the Norfolk coast. A 5-0 win was capped by the most deliriously received moment of the afternoon as Son Heung-min pinged Spurs’ fifth goal, and his second, into the top corner, to ensure he will share the Premier League Golden Boot with Mohamed Salah.
It is an extraordinary achievement for Son, who doesn’t take penalties, who has played in a brittle team under two different managers. He has a wonderful range in his game these days. Right now he would stroll into any team in the world.
To a large extent, though, this is Conte’s moment, a mark of his own enduring voodoo. Spurs have taken the third most points in the Premier League since he joined in November. Spurs have made it back into the European overclass despite losing five of their first 10 games, despite an attempt to re-throw it away from January to March, despite the weirdly damp, mournful interlude under Nuno Espírito Santo.
Firing your manager in mid‑season may or may not be a panacea for deeper structural woes. But it helps if you can hire a coach whose genius is impetus, instant uplift, adrenal, fast-fix team-building and the ability to add spleen, guts, heart, teeth, a sense of robustness that was there in the Pochettino years, but somehow not quite like this.
Carrow Road had been a lovely mild green and yellow place at kick off. Norwich attempted a series of what must, for want of a better word, be called “attacks”, but this is a team that’s all stitching and no scissors. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg paused then whumped the ball over the bar from 10 yards. Could it? Could this be a thing? Was it going to happen again?
No. It wasn’t. Conte’s team had one key advantage in those early exchanges. Dejan Kulusevski didn’t seem to know he was playing for Spurs. Perhaps this can be beaten into him during pre‑season. But for now he is clearly under the impression he’s playing for an upwardly mobile team with some fine players and a top coach.
Kulusevski was supreme all afternoon, and scored the opening goal from a classically Conte move: a quick steal of the ball and an instant lofted pass from Højbjerg. Rodrigo Bentancur took it perfectly on the outside of his foot, a delicate little nuzzle of a touch. He passed to Kulusevski, who buried it.
These were two of Conte’s January hires, scoring a Conte goal. With half an hour gone Bentancur was back at it, teeing up Kane for a headed second. Kulusevski made it three, cutting in from the left and scoring the third with a thrilling shot into the far corner. From there it was all Son. And now, well, what?
The battle for fourth place can often seem an overblown thing, a race for leftovers. But such are the margins this feels like something more. There is a sense of divvying up of the near future taking place. For Spurs the late Levy years had been in danger of a terminal drift, a squandering of hard won gains through miserliness, caution, weird managerial appointments.
Success here is a corollary to a massive missed opportunity for Arsenal, who had no midweek football this season, who spent over £140m last summer, whose manager has had two full years at this. Spurs have all the tools now to build on this. But Conte will demand manpower, resources, advanced weaponry. For all the joys of Norwich in May, the summer will provide the test of just how high Spurs are willing to take this.
