Antonio Conte says Brighton players 'deserved second yellow' as Tottenham suffer home defeat
Tottenham were beaten 1-0 by Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday; Dejan Kulusevski and Enock Mwepu were both lucky to escape red cards for incidents in the first half; Antonio Conte: "I think for the safety of the player, the referee has to pay great attention, to understand."
Sunday 17 April 2022 07:28, UK
Antonio Conte says referees must 'pay more attention to protect players' and believes Brighton players 'deserved the second yellow card' after Tottenham's 1-0 defeat at home.
Spurs were sluggish during a stop-start game on Saturday and were eventually undone by Leandro Trossard's 90th-minute winner, having failed to land a single shot on target themselves during the match.
While chances were in short supply at either end, there was first half controversy when Spurs' Dejan Kulusevski swung an elbow at Marc Cucurella and was only booked, and Brighton's Enock Mwepu, who had already been shown a yellow card, escaped further punishment when he was penalised for a high boot on Ben Davies and stood on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's boot.
Tottenham lost Matt Doherty for the season during last week's win at Aston Villa when he suffered a medial collateral ligament injury from a tackle from Matty Cash and Conte says officials must be alert to moments when players take man and ball in tackles.
"Sometimes I think the referee has to pay more attention to protect players," Conte said in his post-match press conference, when asked whether about Doherty and 'big tackles' from Brighton.
"I understand you go and you take the ball but if you go to take half ball and half body and you make damage to the player, it's not the same.
"I think for the safety of the player, the referee has to pay great attention, to understand.
"If you go to take the ball but when you take the ball and the body and you make damages to your opponent, I think you have to make a big punishment.
"I was a player, I know the way to do it. If I want to make a problem, an opponent an injury, I find the right time to go for the ball and the total body. I was a player, I know this! Instead, to take only the ball, I go the ball… but he has taken the ball, yeah but he broke the leg also [referring to Cash]."
- Tottenham 0-1 Brighton - Match report
- How the teams lined up | Match stats
- Premier League table | Premier League results
Asked about the Kulusevski incident, Conte said: "Honestly I didn't see. I'm going to see what happened. I think maybe also during the game maybe other players deserved the second yellow card for Brighton. But the referee decided in this way and we have to accept the decision of the referee."
And on the possibility of Brighton players slowing down the match at free-kicks, Conte added: "This type of situation referees need to be more good.
"It's normal if you are playing and you know that you can get one point - at the end, they got three points - you understand sometimes you have to lose the intensity of the game and with a player to stay lying down.
"But I think the referees, they have to try to give continuity and don't break the intensity of the game with fake injuries."
Reflecting on his team's performance, Conte said Spurs were below their best and should have seen out the final stages for a draw, rather than pushing too hard for victory.
"For sure not a good result for us," he said. "A lesson we can learn today is that there are games that if you're not able to win, you're not to lose. It was very clear that today wasn't our day.
"I understand we want to try to get three points before our other rivals for the race in the Champions League but sometimes we need to feel.
"The game was very difficult, a tactical game from both sides. Brighton were very good to close every space. We moved the ball slowly. We are able to do much better than today.
"Maybe a more fair final result was a draw but Brighton played a good game, well organised with a good manager. If you win against Arsenal and Tottenham away, it means the team is a good team.
"We started very slowly. In my opinion, we can do much better than we showed today."
Potter: This was better than the Arsenal win!
Meanwhile, Brighton boss Graham Potter was understandably delighted with a second win in north London in as many games, having beaten Arsenal 2-1 at the Emirates last Saturday.
And the Brighton boss reckons the win over Spurs topped the performance against the Gunners.
"It feels better than Arsenal. I thought the performance was a step up. The players were incredible, with work rate and discipline. We had good organisation and attitude to run and defend and be brave when we had the ball as well. It wasn't a smash and grab game.
"We were playing against a lot of world class players and a team in a good moment so we had to be good today. 40 points with six games to go. Not so bad considering it was Armageddon three games ago! It was only fair if we beat Arsenal; we have to go to Spurs and beat them."
What's next?
Spurs head to Brentford for the Saturday Night Football at 5.30pm - live on Sky Sports Premier League - while Brighton travel to league leaders Manchester City on Wednesday at 8pm.
