CONTE LOSES COMPOSURE AFTER SPURS SLIP UP AGAIN

ANTONIO CONTE unleashed a savage verbal assault on his Tottenham flops after watching them surrender a two-goal lead to draw at Southampton.

Conte branded them selfish, accused them of lacking ‘fire’, admitted the collective spirit had gone backwards and waded into the problems of the blame culture inside Spurs.

‘They are used to it here,’ fumed Conte. ‘They don’t play for something important. They don’t want to play under pressure. They don’t want to play under stress.

‘I said I wanted to see the fire and I have not seen it. I want to see the right spirit. Not only in the training session, but on the pitch because it is here you make the difference.

‘Until now, I try to hide the situation but there are 10 games to go and some people think we can fight. Fight for what? With this spirit, this attitude, this commitment? If they want to continue, they can change the manager, a lot of managers, but the situation cannot change.’

Spurs went in at half-time 1-0 up courtesy of Pedro Porro’s opener.

Che Adams levelled in the first minute of the second period before Harry Kane and Ivan Perisic looked like giving Spurs all three points. However, Theo Walcott struck 12 minutes from time and then a penalty from James Ward-Prowse restored parity, leaving Conte furious.