• Last month, Conte suggested he may not be the right man to manage the club, but he has been encouraged by recent developments.
• “There are four teams that in my opinion in England are better than the others — I am talking about Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool," said Conte.
Image: Reuters
Tottenham boss Antonio Conte said things are “starting to work” as his side moved to within three points of the Premier League’s top four with a strong display against West Ham.
Son Heung-min and Harry Kane were involved in all three Spurs goals as they recorded back-to-back Premier League wins.
Conte took over in November with Spurs eighth in the table, but they have climbed three places.
Last month, Conte suggested he may not be the right man to manage the club, but he has been encouraged by recent developments.
“We have this ambition, the ambition is to target fourth place. Before my arrival this seemed difficult to reach, but now after five months, this is starting to work,” said the Italian. “We want to stay in this race until the end. It’s very difficult, but we are improving in a way that I like. This team is growing in the mentality, they are learning to control the game and this is very important.
“There are four teams that in my opinion in England are better than the others — I am talking about Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool.
“But if one of these four teams fail in the season and miss to stay in one of the four places, I think that now at this moment, Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham need to be ready to try to stay until the end.”
Tottenham got off to a blistering start and went ahead in the ninth minute when West Ham defender Kurt Zouma guided Kane’s cross into his own net under pressure from Son.
Son doubled Spurs’ lead after 24 minutes, but they could have been out of sight as the forward also smacked the outside of the post after being teed up by Dejan Kulusevski.
Eventually, Son added a decisive third with two minutes to go, after Said Benrahma had pulled one back for the Hammers from a set-piece, pouncing on Craig Dawson’s header at the back post.
Spurs are now just three points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, who have a game in hand. West Ham, who have played a game more than Spurs, drop to seventh, two points below Manchester United.
Tottenham’s forward pairing of Son and Kane have caused teams problems for years and they were in scintillating form again in London.
The first goal came after Matt Doherty’s tireless pressing won the ball back for Spurs and Kane instinctively looked to tee up Son, before Zouma could do nothing but send it into his own net.
The Kane-Son combination came to fruition again moments later when the England captain’s pass was fired in by Son.
A third link-up seemed inevitable and duly came when Spurs pressed late to see off the visitors. Kane headed on to Son and there was no chance he was missing from close range.
Kane himself had chances to score too — he was denied from close range in the second half before later firing over the bar.
The Spurs pair have now linked up for 39 goals in the Premier League, extending their record as the competition’s deadliest double acts.
Son has scored 20 Premier League goals on a Kane assist — and only David Silva (22 to Sergio Aguero) and Frank Lampard (25 to Didier Drogba) have assisted a team-mate more.