Tottenham Hotspur were woeful in their 2-0 defeat to Chelsea on Wednesday night.The north London club have it all do in the second leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final next week after a tepid performance at Stamford Bridge marked Antonio Conte's second defeat in charge.Just five minutes into the game and Kai Havertz had fired Chelsea into the lead, finding the net with a shot that deflected in off Davinson Sanchez after Marcos Alonso brilliantly snatched possession.
Chelsea 2-0 Tottenham
Then, just to rub salt into Spurs' wounds, the Blues doubled their lead in baffling circumstances as Japhet Tanganga headed the ball into Ben Davies for the most ridiculous of own goals.
And although Tottenham did get their act together after the break with a few brief flashes of hope, they were ultimately unable to take a single goal into the second leg back on their patch next week.
It's the first time that Conte has seen his new side taste defeat since the humiliating collapse against Mura in the UEFA Europa Conference League over a month ago.
Conte looks deflated once again
And one thing that both the Chelsea and Mura losses have in common is the impact that it seemed to have on Conte with the Italian producing very downbeat reactions on each occasion.
In fact, you only have to look at Conte's post-match interviews at Stamford Bridge to see just deflated he was by a performance that - in his opinion - showed how far behind Spurs really are.
Just as he did after the Mura defeat, Conte raised eyebrows across social media with an interview style that - while not necessarily inaccurate - cut a damning reality of the challenge he now faces.
Conte's seriously downbeat reaction
According to the Daily Mail, the former Chelsea boss openly remarked: "I know the situation, it is very clear in this moment there is an important gap.
"We have to try to fight to stay in the league in a good position, but if we think we are close, I think we are not in the right way.
"It was a difficult game, difficult from the start, Chelsea showed to be much better than us.
"If you compare the two teams there is not a comparison. We are talking about a team ready to win - today we have seen the difference between the two teams. We are a team in the middle.
"This game confirmed what I thought about the difference between the teams. In the last years the level of Tottenham has dropped a lot.
"There is a lot of work to do, in this moment, it is very difficult to understand which part you take to improve because there is a lot of situations to improve. We need so much time, and patience.
"We have to be humble, to understand the situation at the moment and continue to work to improve our players, then we will see.
"It is not simple to say go in the transfer market, in January it won't be easy and now the most important thing is to be focused and work to improve.
"I am always very honest with my players, we have to clap the performance of Chelsea. I like to tell the truth and with a good lie you don't go anywhere. We have to try to change this situation, slowly, slowly. It is impossible to change the situation in one or two transfer markets."
Hard truths for Tottenham
Goodness me. Now, like we say, it's not as though Conte is lying or exaggerating, but it still makes for a tough listen for Spurs fans to hear their own manager providing such a downbeat outlook.
Besides, the simple fact of the matter is that Conte has come out and said that Spurs are miles behind a team like Chelsea and it's going to take more than a few transfer windows to fix that.
Surprising? Perhaps not, but worrying? Damn straight.
