ANTONIO CONTE admitted former club Chelsea are ‘much better’ than his current Tottenham team after their one-sided Carabao Cup defeat.
Kai Havertz and a comedy Ben Davies own goal saw Chelsea put one foot in the final ahead of the second leg next week.
The Blues were comfortable throughout, with the visitors mustering just five shots to Chelsea’s 19 and only 36 per cent possession.
After the match, the returning ex-Blues boss admitted: “It was a difficult game, difficult from the start, Chelsea showed to be much better than us.
“The first half, we struggled a lot from the start but we know that we are talking about one of the best teams in Europe, in the world, last season they won the Champions League.
“If you compare the two teams there is not a comparison.
“We are talking about a team ready to win – today we have seen the difference between the two teams.
“It is not easy to play at Stamford Bridge, the way they were very concentrated, they won the ball every time and then we conceded also a goal we were unlucky.
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“When you start the game and after a few minutes they score, for sure the game becomes very difficult.
“But, I know the situation, it is very clear in this moment there is an important gap.
“We have to try to fight to stay in the league in a good position, but if we think we are close, I think we are not in the right way.”
Since Tottenham last won a trophy – the League Cup in 2008 – three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, a League Cup, two Europa Leagues and the Champions League twice.
Conte, who won the Prem and the FA Cup in a two-year spell at Stamford Bridge, also called for patience, despite his decent start to life at Spurs.
He also claimed that it will take more than one or two windows to see Spurs back challenging with the top clubs.
The Italian said: “There is a lot of jobs to do, in this moment, it is very difficult to understand which part you take to improve because there is a lot of situations to improve.
“We need time, and patience. Everyone has to have patience, because Tottenham in the last years the level has dropped a lot and now we have to fight to win every game.
“I started my experience with Tottenham and every game we have fought, and now we struggle to win the game, it wasn’t a game you could say it was easy.
“We have to be humble, to understand the situation at the moment and continue to work to improve our players, then we will see.
“It is not simple to say go in the transfer market, in January it won’t be easy and now the most important thing is to be focused and work to improve.
“We have to try to change this situation, slowly, slowly. It is impossible to change the situation in one or two transfer markets.
“There is a lot of jobs to do in Tottenham and we need a lot of time.
“It is important for patience and I have to have for me also to have patience.”
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