Once again, it took too long for Tottenham to play like Antonio Conte wanted them to, only this time it was not too late. On one hand, Tottenham’s brilliant comeback from two goals down at Bournemouth was the perfect boost ahead of what is their biggest game of the season so far at Olympique Marseille tonight, but on the other an unwanted recent record is adding further trepidation to a fixture where Spurs simply cannot afford to slip up in. Lose in France and they will be out of the Champions League.
It’s as simple as that but at least Tottenham know the stakes ahead of a match of this magnitude, while they will be only too aware of their run of slow starts. Conte’s side have since conceded the opening goal in their last four games, and have trailed at half-time in their last three. Defeats to Manchester United and Newcastle were coming and although Spurs finished strongly against Sporting and Bournemouth, they have made life hard for themselves too often of late. While a winner came at Bournemouth, another was controversially ruled out against Sporting.
It leaves Tottenham needing a win or draw in Marseille tonight to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League, a task they will have do without Conte following his red card and subsequent suspension for protesting Harry Kane’s disallowed goal. “It changes a lot,” Conte’s assistant, Cristian Stellini, admitted when speaking at the Stade Velodrome on the eve of the clash. “The presence of a coach like Conte, both before the game and the week leading up to it and during the match, is just indispensable – especially a tough match like this where it’s going to be intense until the final whistle.”
Elimination at this stage could only be seen as an emphatic squandering of last season’s top-four finish under Conte, a result that was celebrated so wildly following their battle with Arsenal, as well as the kindest of the four draws received by the Premier League sides. At the time of his one-year anniversary with Tottenham, Conte would also be left with the familiar questions over his record in the competition and, despite last season’s top-four finish, the familiar questions over the club’s progress during that time.
Yet amidst concerns over Tottenham’s form, it would also be fair for Conte to point to his side’s response to going two goals down at Bournemouth and ask whether they could have done so without the mentality the Italian has brough to Spurs. After rotating his team with tonight’s Group D decider in Marseille in mind, Conte trusted his options on the bench. It sharpened Spurs, while the switch to 3-4-3 did too. Tottenham’s play was crisper and more purposeful, but it was also more than that. “We started to play nasty,” Conte explained. “With a will and desire to hurt the opponent.”
The challenge for Tottenham in Marseille will therefore be two-fold: to play with a knife between their teeth, but to also do so from the opening whistle. It was generally accepted that in the midst of a hectic pre-World Cup schedule, Spurs have often tried to bide their time in games while allowing their opponents to come onto them in order to create counter-attacking situations. Even as Spurs made their best start to a Premier League season, they did so by only impressing in moments and their inability to produce a complete performance over 90 minutes should have been enough of a warning for what arrived at Old Trafford.
Something may have clicked in the comebacks against Sporting and Bournemouth, where Conte said he asked his team to “show more personality and take more responsibility”, but the concern will be if it goes missing again in Marseille when there is this much on the line.
Tottenham have already been guilty of it: their visit to United was a defining test and Spurs failed to show up while against Newcastle they were well beaten by a side who were hungrier and pressed harder. Tottenham also knew they were facing a good team when they then welcomed Sporting - following their defeat in Lisbon - but they ultimately missed the opportunity to avoid a situation like tonight with what was another slow start.
It feels like a crunch moment, for Tottenham, Conte, and their future together a year into the project. Marseille may be winless in four in Ligue 1 but they will go through at Tottenham’s expense with a win. Marseille salvaged their hopes with back-to-back victories over Sporting and the Stade Velodrome will answer to the call of one of European football’s greatest names looking to reach its first Champions League knockout match in 11 years. Marseille had been competitive in the reverse fixture until Chancel Mbemba cut down Son Heung-min and was sent off prior to Richarlison’s two late headers.
But for Tottenham there is hope that a season that has so far lacked a statement performance may yet get one tonight, although not in the way that many were expecting. To sit third in the Premier League, Conte’s side have gone about their business of beating the teams they should beat without offering much more than the odd spark or spell of attacking quality. There has been a mismatch in the balance between results and performances but at the Velodrome their task is simpler at least. With his departing words Conte will be sure to make it clear: show up, start well, be nasty, take responsibility, and don’t lose. Anything else would be an abject failure.
