It's always fun to watch Tottenham do a Tottenham as they did last night. After Tottenham's defeat to Mura last night Antonio Conte said "After three weeks I'm starting to understand the situation. It is not so simple. At this moment the level at Tottenham is not so high".
If you don't know, Mura play in the Slovenian PrvaLiga. I won't lie I had to google that information as I wasn't sure beforehand. Which makes the loss a lot funnier than usual.
The #CareFreeChelsea team wanted to look back on some old funny quotes about Tottenham and why we associate them as being bottle jobs.
Renuka Odedra - Small team Spurs
“Tottenham might as well have put the team bus in front of their goal. Sometimes when you are a big club, a very small club comes to your stadium. Tottenham got a point they shouldn’t."
Throwback to September 19th in 2004, Jose Mourinho's Chelsea drew 0-0 against Tottenham. Classic Jose and he had a direct jab at Spurs, calling them a 'small team'. As we know Jose would come out with all sorts, in his reign as the Blues manager.
But, he sure did fully embrace the London rivalry with Tottenham after this jibe and calling out Jacques Santini’s tactics. You're 100% right Jose, a small team they are indeed, ha!
Scott Clayton - Conte 2017
The now Tottenham manager Antonio Conte had this to say about Tottenham in 2017 while at Chelsea.
“At Chelsea If [Spurs] don’t win the title, it’s not a tragedy. If they don’t arrive in the Champions League, it’s not a tragedy.“
“If they go out in the first round of the Champions League, it’s not a tragedy. If they go out after the first game that they play in the Europa League, it’s not a tragedy.“
“Maybe for Chelsea, Arsenal, Man City, Man United and – I don’t know – Liverpool, it is a tragedy.“
“You must understand the status of the team. Every team has to understand what their ambitions are. If their ambitions are to fight for the title or win the Champions League, you must buy expensive players. Otherwise, you continue to stay at your level.“
“It’s simple. My question is this: What are Tottenham’s expectations?“
Conte basically explained it all before oddly deciding to take the role at Spurs. After a few matches in charge of the team has admitted how much of a job it is to get Tottenham to be a club like Chelsea.
My teams built different, as Reece James put last week sums up my thoughts perfectly.
Anita Abayomi - Giorgio Chiellini
“It’s the history of Tottenham. They always created many chances and score so much, but at the end they miss always something to arrive [win] at the end.“
I thought Antonio Conte would be Tottenham's saving grace. After their disappointing loss in the European Conference League, it's safe to assume that the history of Tottenham may not change any time soon.
Throwing it back to when Juventus beat Tottenham in 2018, Giorgio Chiellini took to the press to let us know that Tottenham didn't have the mental strength to beat them due to their history.
He followed it up by saying "We believe in history." Now so do I. Jose Mourinho has tried to change the narrative, now Antonio Conte has hit a stumbling block in his own path.
I wonder what it will take to change the trajectory over in North London.
Daniel Childs - Frank Lampard
“We used to beat them a lot. Chelsea had a thing from before I came to the club where they called it ‘Three-Point Lane’ rather than White Hart Lane and they used to go there and win.”
This is the most recent quote to add to this glorious list, and it comes from Chelsea's greatest ever player.
Frank Lampard was interviewed by Gary Neville on The Overlap YouTube channel on a variety of topics, and when asked by Neville what away ground was his favourite he brought up Spurs given the amount of success he had there as a player.
Both Lampard and Neville laughing at Spurs expense was very enjoyable, and it is even sweeter that Lampard as a coach for Chelsea started a trend of Blues dominance at their new stadium, beating Jose Mourinho 2-0 in December 2019.
This video was released mere hours before Antonio Conte's Spurs would somehow conspire to lose 2-1 away at Slovenian side NŠ Mura in the Europa Conference League, adding further embarrassment onto a poor start to the season and as usual, sparking more laughter from Chelsea supporters.
Follow our CareFreeChelsea writers Scott Clayton, Anita Abayomi, Daniel Childs, and Renuka Odedra on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section. If you enjoyed reading this then give my other articles a read below.
