Antonio Conte sends Hugo Lloris message after north London derby defeat

Antonio Conte labelled Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris as “one of the best keepers in the world” despite making another error in the north London derby defeat to Arsenal.

The 2018 World Cup winner, who was a beaten finalist with France less than a month ago, has endured a disappointing season thus far, making a number of unsightly mistakes that have cost Spurs dear.

Lloris’ latest error came when he palmed a deflected Bukayo Saka cross into his own net to open the scoring for Arsenal, and it was a moment that Spurs to failed to recover from as Martin Odegaard netted soon after to seal a comfortable 2-0 win.

Speaking after the game to the press, Tottenham boss Conte was asked about Lloris’ recent form, where the Italian backed his goalkeeper as one of the world’s best despite his mistakes.

“In this situation it’s always difficult. I think that it’s not positive to be focused on only one situation or two situation,” Conte said. “Football I know is this and sometimes you can do positive and save many situations positively but honestly I consider Hugo one of the best keepers in the world and it can happen.

“It can happen that sometimes you can make a mistake. For sure when there is the mistake of the keeper it is more visible. Hugo for us is a one of the players who is really important for the dressing room, for his personality because we are talking about a player who is one of the best keepers in the world.”

Conte continued his defence of his players thereafter too, stating that he was not too upset with his side’s performance in the north London derby.

“About the performance, I’m not disappointed. I’m not disappointed because we knew that the game could be really difficult because Arsenal is a really, really strong team and also tonight showed that they deserve to stay top of the league, they deserve to be title contenders.

“In my opinion Arsenal and City are the only two teams that can fight for the Premier League this season.

“At the same time I’m a bit disappointed for the way we lost. I think we started well, with the right intensity and the right focus, but then we conceded a goal and after this goal we created an important chance with Sonny and I think the Arsenal keeper made a fantastic save. Instead of going 1-1, we went 2-0 as we then conceded another goal.”