Antonio Conte: Covid-hit Tottenham head coach says Champions League finish would be 'life-changing'

Tottenham head coach Antonio Conte says qualifying for the Champions League would be "life-changing" as the Covid-hit Italian hopes to be in the dugout for this weekend’s match against Brighton.

Fourth-placed Spurs can move six points clear of Arsenal with a home win against Brighton in Saturday's 12.30pm kick-off, before Mikel Arteta's side face Southampton at 3pm.

Conte's side, who hammered Aston Villa 4-0 last weekend, are aiming for a fifth-straight win as they look to reach the Champions League for the first time since the 2019/20 competition.

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The 52-year-old said: "The Champions League is a competition that every club, every player, every manager wants to play and for this reason it's important to have this great goal.

"[It] changes your life if next season you are going to play in the Champions League, instead of playing UEFA [Europa] League, [Europa] Conference League or nothing.

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"This situation has to give us a great push, a great desire to finish the season in the best possible way.

"The team is ready to fight until the end in this race. This race is not easy.

"It's very, very important to finish in the top four in England because it means that you have reached a great result for the club.

"Yesterday and two days ago we watched how important it is to play in the Champions League and how fascinating these type of games [are]. I'm sure that in my players there is a great desire to be protagonists in this competition.

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"But we know very well that there are other teams that are really strong - Arsenal, [Manchester] United, West Ham, Wolverhampton - that they are in the same race with us, but we want to fight until the end and we'll see what happens at the end of the season."

Conte: I'm feeling fine

Conte is recovering from coronavirus after testing positive following last weekend's win at Villa Park.

He has been involved at the training ground this week while social distancing and is hoping to lead the team as normal on Saturday.

"I attended the training session, but from distance," he revealed. "I had my staff and they did a really good job.

"A day after the game against Aston Villa I started to feel mild symptoms, a bit of a pain in my throat and I asked for a Covid test, and it was positive, but now I'm fine and well.

"This week was a strange week for me and also for the players because the players are used to having training sessions with me and not only with my staff, but it's okay because my staff are doing a great job.

"I think on Saturday I [can] stay on my place on the bench, and given the length of time since my Covid test, I think that I could stay on the bench on Saturday."

Conte: Doherty's season-ending injury 'really bad news'

Tottenham were dealt a blow earlier this week as defender Matt Doherty was ruled out for the rest of the season after rupturing his medial collateral ligament (MCL) during Saturday's win over Aston Villa.

Doherty had been in good form in recent weeks, with two goals and three assists in his last five games, but Conte insists they can cope with the Irishman's absence.

He said: "This is a really bad news for us [Doherty's injury] and you know very well the improvements in our team.

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"It's a pity because to lose a player like him for the rest of the season is not good for us, and if you also add [Japhet] Tanganga and then [Oliver] Skipp - they're not available for us - this is bad news for us in one hand.

"On the other hand, I think that now we have the solution to try and cope with this situation until the end of the season.

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"There are all only seven games to go. [Ryan] Sessegnon is ready and is in the squad. Then there is Emerson [Royal] and [Sergio] Reguilon.

"We have to try to cope in the in the best possible way until the end of the season. To lose players like Matthew Doherty and Tanganga and also Skipp is not easy for us."

Asked whether Doherty needs surgery, Conte confirmed: "No. The first visit with the doctor said he can recover without surgery, but in this type of situation it's important to have different opinions and then to make the best decision.

"But we're talking about seven to eight weeks to recover, and for this reason his season has finished and I repeat, it's a pity because Doherty was an important player for us."

Merson Says: There's still something Spursy about Tottenham

Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson:

I still feel Arsenal have got a chance. Arsenal have got to go to Chelsea and Tottenham have still got to face Liverpool, which will be a different game. With Chelsea beating Southampton last weekend, that's sort of cemented their top-four place.

What I would say is that the Arsenal players are at their ceiling. They're playing as well as they can and there isn't too much more in the locker. They had a day against Brighton where they dropped off that level and they got beaten.

If you take a couple of players out who are very influential in that team and things aren't great. The squad's not big and Mikel Arteta virtually picks the same players all the time and against Brighton, they bumped into a team who had nothing to play for and who had a free swing.

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I felt it would be a dodgy game. Brighton hadn't been playing well but you sensed it would be a nice football match. Arsenal couldn't get their full team out and it became a bit of a struggle. Kieran Tierney is a massive player and Thomas Partey has become increasingly influential.

I still feel Arsenal are in it because Tottenham have still got a Tottenham in them. I don't mean that in a horrible way, but they still have got a Tottenham in them. Everyone was going mad about them but they could've been blown away in the first half against Aston Villa.

Villa should've been out of sight and they only have to have one of those days in the next seven weeks. The 4-0 win over Villa covered over the cracks. They did some great stuff, don't get me wrong, but in the first half Hugo Lloris had to make save after save. So I'm still not convinced by Tottenham.

The top four is still very much on for Arsenal.

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