It seems pretty fair to describe Chelsea v Spurs as the biggest game of the season so far.
Most obviously, it is the first meeting of two big six clubs. But it even sits at the more interesting end of those clashes, pitting together as it does not just apparently evenly-matched rivals with similar goals for the season but also two teams who have been on interesting and very different journeys.
It is a clear early guide to how far Spurs have truly come under Conte – we’ll certainly know more about them after this one than we did after the startlingly hospitable Southampton defence laid out the red carpet on the opening weekend.
It will also tell us a fair bit about Chelsea; there is a distinct sense that this might be a handy time to face them. For all Spurs’ ambitious summer recruitment, they started this season with the side that finished so strongly last time around and thus have the luxury of an absurdly deep bench. Chelsea are a different prospect and hit this first big game still in something of a state of flux and lacking an obvious goal threat. They may well remedy that over the weeks ahead but for now this game, a fixture that Spurs have traditionally approached with subsequently validated dread, looks like one that presents them with a real opportunity to make a serious statement of intent.
But beyond being a big game for the league and a big game for Spurs and a big game for Chelsea it’s a huge game for Conte.
He is still haunted if that’s the right word by his time at Chelsea and how it ended. For all his reputation for spending only two or three years at one club, for all that Chelsea has become to English fans at least become the archetype of the Conte Reign – great initial success before acrimony and resentment seeps in – it’s the one that still ended most acrimoniously.
In his early days at Spurs, Conte faced a three-game run against Chelsea in January. It went abysmally. Spurs lost all three games – two legs of a Carabao semi-final and a league game at Stamford Bridge – without scoring a goal or ever really competing.
Talk at the time was that those Chelsea games had Conte agitated. While the outburst after the 1-0 defeat at Burnley a few weeks later was the closest he had sounded to just walking away from Spurs, it was the Chelsea games that had pushed him to that place.
His demeanour during those games was atypically subdued and his response each time a little odd. Picking Gollini in goal for the second leg of the…
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