Tottenham mark a year of Antonio Conte as a team going backwards from where they were in the spring

A year ago, on the accession of Antonio Conte to the Tottenham throne, if you had told Spurs supporters that 365 days later they would be bound for the knockout stages of the Champions League having topped their group, you would have found precious few complaints. And yet, now, you would do well to quibble with anyone inclined to grumble, even after tonight’s events.

Yes, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg thumped Spurs to top spot in Group D at the death, Conte’s side scrabbling over a field that looked more underwhelming with every passing week. Two wins would suggest that Tottenham have draggled themselves out of the quicksand they found themselves in after their defeats to Manchester United and Newcastle.

But little on the pitch suggests that. Blow the final whistle a few moments earlier at the Vitality Stadium and the Stade Velodrome and Spurs would be winless in five. The closing minutes count just as much as any others, but should a team of this quality on paper need every one of the 90 minutes and a few more to find their way past midtable opposition in the Premier League and Ligue 1?

Beyond the winning, this isn’t what Spurs should expect of Conte a year in. It seems almost unreasonable to compare where they are to where they were after Nuno Espirito Santo’s disastrous interregnum. Of course they are better now than then, but that should not be the limit of expectations for one of Europe’s best (and most well remunerated managers). Conte, one suspects, could have fallen flat on his face and he would still have cleared the bar Nuno had set.