Stats that show Tottenham Hotspur improvement under Conte

Righting the ship by going unbeaten thus far in the Premier League is the most obvious sign of Tottenham improving under Antonio Conte, some key statistics are another.

The current Tottenham Hotspur three-match winning streak is their second this season, having started the season 3-0. While the opening three-game streak had a marque win over Manchester City, the overall signs were not great.

In those three matches, Spurs were actually outshot 36 to 52 but had won all three games 1-0. That tendency to be outshot was a common theme for Spurs during Nuno Espirito Santo’s reign but shots are just one area where the statistics tell us Tottenham is improving and that improvement starts defensively.

Tottenham is much tougher on defence

Over the ten Premier League matches where Santo was in charge, Tottenham conceded sixteen goals or 1.6 per game. Conte has only managed four matches but with just one goal conceded in those four league games, the defence is much improved.

Conceding only .25 goals per match is better than a goal per game improvement, which is significant in football where not a lot of goals are scored. It is not just the actual goals against improving, shots against are down as are the expected goals against.

Under Nuno, Spurs conceded 14.5 shots per match, of which 4.2 were on target. Thus far under Conte Spurs are conceding almost 3 shots less per match at 11.75 and are down over a shot on target per game at just 3 against.

With fewer shots in general and fewer shots on target, there should be little surprise that the overall goals and the expected goals against are all down. To give up just 1 goal in four matches, including three shutouts, after conceding 4 goals in the previous two games is a significant improvement.

Fortunately for Tottenham, the overall improvement has not just been seen on the defensive end.