Antonio previews West Ham: "The atmosphere will be amazing"
Tue 21 December 2021, 18:15|
Tottenham Hotspur
Antonio Conte highlighted West Ham’s threat from set pieces ahead of Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup quarter-final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (7.45pm).
It’s a threat we’ve already seen up close this season as the Hammers’ winner against us in the Premier League at the London Stadium in October came via Aaron Cresswell’s corner, turned home by Michail Antonio.
West Ham have scored six goals from set pieces in the Premier League so far this term and even without the threat of injured defenders Angelo Ogbonna and Kurt Zouma, they still have the likes of Antonio, Craig Dawson and Thomas Soucek to attack balls coming into the box.
“It’s a quarter-final against a really good team, a strong team,” said Antonio on Tuesday. “West Ham showed in the last few years that they are a really good team under David Moyes, and they are doing really well. Our expectation is to have a difficult game against a physical team, and we have to pay great attention in set pieces. But, when you reach a quarter-final of a competition, no game can be easy.”
To win trophies is always important but I think in this moment, at this period for Tottenham, I think it’s time to build something important
This will represent Antonio’s second London derby already as our Head Coach having beaten Brentford in the Premier League at the start of the month. Of course, as a former Chelsea boss, the sheer number of capital clashes - 10 in the league this season - is no surprise to him. Indeed, we’ve two this week with Palace arriving in N17 on Boxing Day (3pm).
“When you are the manager or coach of a London team, you have to be prepared to have many derbies,” he reasoned. “For sure, the atmosphere around this type of game will be fantastic, amazing. Also, because we’re in the Christmas period, it will be good for the fans and our players to enjoy this type of game. We’ll try to do our best, as always, and we hope to go through to the next round.”
We’re at the last eight stage of the competition, but Antonio was asked in his press conference how important it would be to win a trophy so early into his Spurs career.
He responded: “To win trophies is always important but I think in this moment, at this period for Tottenham, I think it’s time to build something important. This is the most important thing.
“Then, for sure, if you ask me if trophies are important, they are important for every club. For me it's important to build a solid base, a foundation, to have a team in a short period that can be competitive, to fight not only for one trophy but to be competitive and to fight for all competitions we play.”
