Tottenham uprising gains sense of origin story with Antonio Conte

It felt like an end, not a beginning. Internazionale had just gone 2-0 down at home to Torino with half an hour to play and, as the camera panned to the touchline, Antonio Conte bore the expression of a man who had accepted an invitation to dinner only to discover that the menu would be entirely vegan. His side had won three of their opening seven games of the 2020-21 season and were eighth in Serie A. The prospect of mounting any sort of challenge for the scudetto seemed laughably remote.

At which point, something stirring and strange happened. Alexis Sánchez pulled one back after a goalmouth scramble. Romelu Lukaku bundled in a scruffy equaliser and then converted a contentious penalty with six minutes remaining.

Inter ended up winning 4-2 and with the benefit of hindsight – because who can really know these things at the time? – it was the point when all the pieces began to fall into place. Powered by the raw fumes of that comeback Inter went on a run of seven more straight wins that would set them on course for their first title in 11 years.

This is one of the hallmarks of Conte’s most successful teams: the moment when they seem at their weakest is the moment from which they draw their greatest strength. At some indeterminate point, whether through circumstance or epiphany, everything just clicks. The origins of Conte’s 2016-17 title win with Chelsea came in a famous half-time tactical switch during a 3-0 defeat to Arsenal. It was a 4-1 mauling against Germany that convinced Conte to try the 3-5-2 system that ended up taking Italy to the quarter-finals of Euro 2016.

As Conte’s Tottenham pulled off a remarkable 3-2 victory at Leicester on Wednesday, it was tempting to wonder whether we were witnessing another such