Antonio Conte reacts to Matt Doherty’s display in Tottenham win

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Antonio Conte has said that he was really happy with Matt Doherty after his performance in Tottenham Hotspur’s win over Everton on Saturday, sharing what he told the right-back when he came off – in comments reported by Football London.

Spurs beat the Toffees 2-0 in North London. Goals from Harry Kane and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the second-half sealed the three points for Conte’s men.

Tottenham were largely dominant. And they are now level on points with Manchester City, and one off the summit.

One major positive came at right wing-back as Doherty once again deputised for Emerson Royal.

Doherty was bright against Brighton. And he went on to make one crucial late tackle. But he appears to have stepped up a level against Everton.

Conte really happy with Doherty

Conte suggested that the Republic of Ireland international was very much back to his best on Saturday.

“About Matthew, honestly I’m really happy, really happy,” he said, as reported by Football London. “He played a good game against Brighton but today he played better than the last game.

“He played well in the last game and I was happy also with it but today I have seen again the Matt Doherty of last season. I was really pleased and said to him ‘finally now you are the player that I know!’.”

As Conte noted, Doherty was excellent late last season. He had previously come in for a lot of criticism after a poor start to life with Tottenham.

But he proved his doubters wrong. Unfortunately, a nasty injury late in the campaign prevented him from kicking on. And with that, Royal started the season as first-choice.

Conte clearly trusts Royal. And there have been some bright moments from the Brazilian. However, plenty of Tottenham fans will be hoping to see the pecking order revised after Saturday.

Doherty offers so much more when it comes to going forward. Tottenham fans seemed to be growing pretty tired of how Royal failed to make things happen in the final third.

Royal is out for one more Premier League game. And it does appear that Doherty is well on his way to making sure that he keeps his place.