Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has insisted that he will always fight aggression with aggression after his fracas with Thomas Tuchel during Sunday's 2-2 draw with Chelsea in the Premier League.
The two managers butted heads on more than one occasion at Stamford Bridge, as Conte firstly celebrated close to Tuchel following Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg's equaliser to cancel out Kalidou Koulibaly's opener.
Conte and Tuchel had to be separated by other staff members before Reece James restored Chelsea's lead, which Tuchel celebrated by dashing past his Tottenham counterpart across the touchline.
The Blues were seconds away from taking all three points away from the derby before Tottenham won a corner in the dying embers, which Harry Kane met to head home - albeit with a deflection off of James - and rescue a point for the Lilywhites.
Tuchel seemingly refused to let go of Conte's hand and demanded that the Italian look him in the eye at the final whistle, as both men squared up once more and received red cards for their troubles.
© Reuters
Speaking in his press conference after the game, Conte played down the incident with his fellow capital coach but insisted that he would not back down when met with hostility.
"If I see aggression then my answer is aggression," Conte told reporters. "It's not so important. The most important thing is football and to speak about football. It was an intensive game.
"This game was really tough for us. You know really well that to come here they are a really good team. If I compare last season and maybe three games without playing the superiority was clear.
"Honestly the referee showed me a red card but he didn't understand the dynamic of what happened, but ok I have to accept but I repeat it's not a big problem. The problem is between me and the other coach, not with the referee.
"I think the celebration from both sides was really good (laughs). The run and then the jump. You can understand the situation. I think this game is an important game for both clubs."
© Reuters
Tottenham had initially gone behind through Koulibaly's volley from a corner and struggled to claw their way back into the game in the first half, and Conte admitted that his side were second best throughout the 90 minutes.
"I have to be honest, today Chelsea showed to be better than us. We can do better but at the same time we scored twice. In the last three games we didn't score," Conte added.
"We got a point and we showed in my opinion character and personality and my players wanted to stay in the game until the end, but my players know what is my idea. We can do better."
Should Conte's red card be upheld, the Italian will not be on the touchline for the visit of Wolverhampton Wanderers to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium next Saturday.
Kane's late equaliser at Stamford Bridge was his 184th Premier League goal for Tottenham, seeing him equal the record for the most strikes for a single club in the competition, which was previously set by Sergio Aguero.
Ben Knapton
