Antonio Conte hails 'masters' Leeds United and makes Whites admission after Tottenham victory

Conte faced Leeds in his first league game in charge back in November in which strikes from Pierre Hojbjerg and Sergio Reguilon eventually gave Spurs a 2-1 victory after United had led through Dan James.

Three months later, Conte's side romped to an easy victory at Elland Road as Matt Doherty, Dejan Kulusevski, Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son all netted but Conte was full of praise for Marcelo Bielsa's Whites.

"For the first time, I have seen my mark, about this system and our creation with one wing-back and the other wing-back scoring," said Conte at his post-match press conference.

"It's a mark of my formation and my system for the first time and it means that it's starting to work and it was a good performance for us in a stadium that is very difficult against a strong team that is not simple to play against.

"This Leeds side. I remember them very well from my first game at Tottenham - we played against Leeds and we struggled a lot.

"We were losing 1-0 and then we came back to 2-1 but honestly in the end of the game I think Leeds deserved much more in the first game when we played them at home.

"Today we played a really good game, good performance, good football.

"But what I wanted to see today was the right spirit, the right character, the right desire to fight, to win the ball, to win the duels, against a team that in this situation are masters because they go and press a lot and they have duels in every area of the pitch.

"Today I asked this of my players. I wanted an answer not only in football aspects but also I want to see improvement in these aspects that in my opinion are very, very important.

"Usually my teams are strong, strong not only on the pitch and not only to play football but stronger mentally, strong in their desire and their spirit.

"The opponent tried to play against us, they know this, and we are working also on this aspect

"Today I asked for the answer, this type of answer, especially after the defeat against Burnley.

"Against Burnley we lost that game because the opponents showed more desire than us and today I asked for a a bi answer from my players and they gave it to me."

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