Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has admitted that the postponement of the Manchester City match has given his side an advantage.
Both the Premier League and EFL cancelled last weekend's programme as a mark of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. The football authorities had been criticised for their decision, which saw City's game at home to Tottenham on Saturday afternoon being called off.
Both Spurs and City had played midweek Champions League fixtures in the build-up to the clash, securing 4-0 and 2-0 wins over Sevilla and Marseille respectively. However, Conte was not happy with the scheduling for the Premier League fixture, as he complained over a lack of preparation time owing to his side playing 24 hours later than Pep Guardiola's.
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Before the postponement was announced, the Italian manager told BT Sport: "Richy’s [Richarlison's] in good form, I’m a bit worried we are playing in two days against City. I think now we have to try and rest, recover well, City played yesterday they have one day more to rest.
"In my opinion, it’s very important [to rest] . This time, we accept these fixtures."
The match was of course subsequently postponed, and it's safe to say that Conte has had a change of tune with the easing of a congested fixture list.
Speaking to the press, he said: “Not playing on Saturday gave us the possibility to recover better and the situation has changed because when you play every two, three days you need rotation otherwise you risk injuries.
"The game against City being postponed gave us the possibility to recover well and let me be more relaxed picking the starting XI. It let me try something different. I have changed some things in my mind. The Premier League postponing helped us recover and have the chance to pick the best XI [against Sporting] and then for the next game against Leicester.”
In a World Cup year, it is hard to see where this rearranged fixture will take place without causing either team a headache. Whether Conte will be quite as upbeat about the scheduling as he is now, is yet to be seen.
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