Chris Sutton hits out at Antonio Conte before Tottenham face Palace

Add as preferred source on Google

Chris Sutton has told BBC Sport that Antonio Conte will already have his excuses ready ahead of Tottenham Hotspur’s clash with Crystal Palace, claiming that the Spurs boss will never accept responsibility for his side’s problems.

Tottenham are really struggling right now. Their defeat to Aston Villa marked the tenth game in a row in all competitions in which they have conceded the first goal.

They have now fallen out of the top-four in the Premier League having failed to win both of their games since returning from the World Cup. And the worry for supporters will be that it just has not clicked for Tottenham all season – even when they have been winning games.

Sutton hits out at Conte

Spurs face Palace next. And while Sutton just about backed Tottenham to win, he did hit out at Conte for deflecting blame for the issues the side have been dealing with.

He told BBC Sport: “I really don’t have a clue whether Tottenham will turn up, but if they don’t win then I do know that their manager Antonio Conte will have an excuse ready – it’s never his fault, is it?

“I don’t think Spurs have been good enough all season and I can understand why their fans have been so frustrated when they have phoned up to complain on about Conte’s style of football on BBC Radio 5 Live’s 606.”

Spurs boss definitely has point to prove

It is ominous for Tottenham that Conte is struggling to get a tune out of the current side. It was undoubtedly a massive coup for Daniel Levy to bring him to North London given the situation when he arrived.

Conte has enjoyed real success at a number of clubs. So it appeared to be a real statement to appoint him. And it seemed to be the kind of decision that could propel Spurs back into the title picture.

His supporters will suggest that Tottenham would be even worse off without him. Meanwhile, some will agree with Sutton that Conte’s performances deserves to come under greater scrutiny.

The answer is probably somewhere in the middle. Conte has not done well enough so far. However, this project was always likely to take longer than 12 months.

But there is no doubt that it is getting more and more difficult to argue that Conte is definitely the right man for Tottenham to put their full faith in.