The reason Antonio Conte didn’t change Spurs’ formation at Arsenal and what sent him into a rage

Here are our talking points from Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-1 defeat at Arsenal in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.

A mental block and that formation

This was a Tottenham Hotspur team that contained a World Cup winner, a Champions League winner and a number of Champions League finalists, a Copa America winner, title winners in various leagues and players who had taken to the field in a European Championship final at Wembley just over a year ago.

Yet put them out on the pitch at the Emirates Stadium, or even Stamford Bridge, and that goes out the window. Give them the Etihad or even Anfield pitch and they often won’t wilt in the face of pressure but there’s something about heading across London to those two grounds that makes any past experience and success dissolve.

There’s a mental block for these games. One seems to be forming for the Gunners when they travel across north London and for Spurs when they step out at the Emirates Stadium the errors emerge from even the most experienced players. Tottenham have won just one of their past 30 matches at Arsenal, losing 18 of those games and without a win now in 12.

The formation did not help them, other than giving them the ability to sweep forward with numbers on a few occasions during the first half with a bright spell after Harry Kane’s penalty – his 14th goal in 18 North London Derbies.

However, on the whole Arsenal were able to dominate possession and pin Spurs back in their own half and once again Tottenham’s football failed to sparkle.

Switching to the 3-5-2 that Tottenham finished their win against Leicester with would have provided Antonio Conte’s men with more strength through the middle at the Emirates Stadium and allowed him to have a Plan B from the bench in Richarlison.

However, any possibility of switching to that system became more difficult in the week as football.london understands Yves Bissouma was one of the group of players Conte said had returned from international duty with “physical problems”.

The 26-year-old had only played 15 minutes of Mali’s second match of the international break when the rain poured down and forced the game against Zambia to be abandoned. Despite that brief playing time, Bissouma returned with a small problem and was a doubt at one stage in the days before the game.

While he would eventually be fit enough for a place on the bench and came on late in the game at the Emirates Stadium, it meant Conte would not have been able to prepare properly for such a formation switch – if he had wanted to – unless he selected Oliver Skipp.

However, the 22-year-old had only just played his first competitive minutes in nine months for England U21s and to throw him into the starting line-up in such a North London Derby would have been a tough call.

Ultimately any formation is going to be undermined by mistakes. Aside from poor passing, Spurs were sloppy at the back.

For Arsenal’s first goal, the midfield stood off Thomas Partey and allowed to him fire his shot from distance. For the second goal, it’s unclear why the most experienced player on the pitch in Hugo Lloris felt it was a good idea to push Bukayo Saka’s shot forward into the six-yard box and then fall over Cristian Romero’s pass back with Gabriel Jesus lurking.

Lloris had made a few good saves beforehand in the game, carrying on from some top recent performances, but he spoilt it with that absent-minded moment and his distribution with his feet was also poor.

Then the third goal saw Gabriel Martinelli exploit the space left by Emerson’s red card and Conte’s lack of immediate substitution, with Eric Dier following the Brazilian’s run rather than the ball, which was sitting at the feet of Granit Xhaka, who duly placed it in the bottom right corner.

“I spoke with the players and said to try and move on quickly because sometimes you have a strange game,” said Conte afterwards. “I think today was a game that after the first half we felt the possibility to win the game because we had the chances that we should exploit much better.

“In the second half to concede the goal quickly and then the red card, the game changed totally. Now I think we have to move on and know we have to take the positivity of this game. Also we have to try and improve the situation that cost us defeat. We have to prepare for the next game, in only three days we have to play against Frankfurt and this has to be a big push.”

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