Tottenham manager Antonio Conte reveals international break blow after beating West Ham

Tottenham manager Antonio Conte is disappointed with the timing of the international break, after his team put up a professional performance to beat West Ham 3-1.

The victory meant Spurs kept pace in the battle for the Champions League places in the Premier League, to close the gap on fourth-placed Arsenal.

South Korean international Son Heung-min was the man of the match, despite the 29-year-old forward coming into the game flat and strangely out of form.

He pressed Kurt Zouma into diverting Harry Kane’s cross into his own net for the first, scored the second, and after Said Benrahma pulled one back for West Ham, Son calmly slotted in Spurs’ third goal in the 88th minute to wrap up the win.

The result was a brilliant response from Tottenham to Arsenal, who beat Aston villa 24 hours before that, and both sides are shaping up for a titanic North London derby later in the season.

Tottenham have now won three of their last four league games, and are still in with a chance to finish in the top four if they can beat Arsenal and hope the Gunners slip up.

The run in for the that precious Champions League spot is getting more and more intense with each passing week.

But manager Antonio Conte says the timing of the international break is disappointing, as his team was just about to take shape and find form and consistency.

He added: “It’s a pity to have this international break at this moment because we’re in good form.

“The players have to go off and we’ll see them in nine to 10 days.

“With the others we’ll have a combination of rest and work, but we want to exploit this period to continue to improve the players here.”

And Conte praised his players and their new-found attitude in beating the Hammers in a key top four clash.

He added: “We are starting to understand and manage 95 minutes in a different way.

“Today also when West Ham tried in the first minutes of the second half to push us and increase the intensity we did well in this period and controlled the game.

“It shows we are understanding the importance of winning the game and managing many parts of the game.”