VIDEO: Furious Antonio Conte held back by Tottenham staff in heated touchline spat

A furious Antonio Conte had to be held back by members of the Tottenham staff in a heated touchline spat against Southampton.

Tensions boiled over as Spurs picked up a Premier League defeat with the incident coming midway through the second half, just after his side had retaken the lead in the contest through Son Heung-Min.

Southampton’s players were raging with what looked like a foul on the on-loan Chelsea striker Armando Broja in a build-up to the goal.

Antonio Conte was shushing the Southampton players after 72 minutes 😳 pic.twitter.com/1K6hj5n5lg

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) February 10, 2022

Broja rose high for a header with Emerson Royale but came off worse in a bruising challenge as the Spurs player headed the ball forward to start the move.

Some Southampton players and touchline staff appealed for a foul however referee David Coote waved play on with Tottenham launching a blistering counter-attack.

A great move on the left led to the ball being played through to Lucas Moura, sending in a lovely low cross into the box with Son meeting it and hitting it home past Fraser Forster.

Conte produced a wild celebration but then turned his attention to his opposition manager Ralph Hassenhutl and his coaching staff, who remained incensed over the apparent foul on Broja.

Heated words turned to gestures as both managers squared up on the touchline, with Conte reportedly being dragged away by one of his assistants.

There was still time for the Italian to make a ‘shhhh’ posture in the direction of Southampton’s supporters, with the image captured by the BT Sport cameras.

The ex-Chelsea boss would have been thrilled with Son’s strike to put Tottenham 2-1 ahead, however it would be Ralph left laughing as Southampton turned the game on its head.

Mohamed Elyounoussi head low from a wonderful James Ward-Prowse cross then Che Adams did the same trick from another Prowsey delivery to make it 3-2.

Spurs thought they had come away with a point in injury time, but Steven Bergwijn’s goal was ruled out for offside.

Player ratings

Tottenham: Lloris (7), Sanchez (5), Romero (5), Davies (6), Emerson (5), Hojbjerg (6), Winks (6), Reguilon (7), Lucas (7), Kane (6), Son (7)

Subs: Bentancur (7), Kulusevski (6), Bergwijn (6)

Southampton: Forster (7), Walker-Peters (7), Salisu (7), Bednarek (6), Perraud (8), S Armstrong (7), Romeu (7), Ward-Prowse (8), Elyounoussi (8), Adams (8), Broja (8)

Subs: Diallo (6), Walcott (6), Long (6)

Man of the match: Mohamed Elyounoussi

Spurs head coach Antonio Conte rued his side’s “important mistakes” and said they remain “too emotional” when it comes to managing games.

“For sure, we have to be disappointed,” he said. “They were good but I think we made many, many mistakes, especially with the ball, and I think this type of situation creates a bit of mental instability in my team.

“In the second half, then, we started to play, we started to press in the right way and then we created chances to score.

“We also did that in the first half because every time we play the ball in the right way, we created a situation to go and score, but I repeat, we made many mistakes in the first half – important mistakes.

“For sure, I think we are now improving in many aspects but we are still too emotional.

“Against Leicester, we won 3-2 and we were losing 2-1. Today, we were winning 2-1 and we lost 3-2.

“I think on this aspect, we have to improve because if we want to grow as a team and try to be competitive, the first thing we have to improve is to be stable, not up and down, up and down.”

Ralph Hasenhuttl described Southampton’s performance as their best under his management.

“Unbelievable game,” he told BT Sport. “I’m here now since three years – I think this was by far the best performance we have shown.

“The first half was unbelievable. We would score normally three or four goals. It’s a pity we only scored once.

“You see in some moments their quality – this is hard to defend always – but every player today did exactly what we needed to do. The gameplan from every player was brought 100 per cent onto the pitch.

“Before the second goal we scored, we played 23 passes. This is fantastic and really I am very proud.”

Twitter users reacted as a furious Antonio Conte gets held back by Tottenham staff in a heated touchline spat…

@PatrickTimmons1: Antonio Conte shushing Southampton as his side take the lead controversially only to throw the game away within the next 12 minutes. Spursy.

@ScottishSexyMan: Still can’t believe what I just watched, what an unbelievable performance from us. Best performance of the season BY FAR IMHO. Came through all of that frustration with the Broja foul incident and managed to shush back Conte in his own stadium. I love this team. #SaintsFC

@DavidEllis565: One of the basic rules of football is that if you behave like he did at 72 mins … you lose the game. How does he not know that? #TOTSOU

@sfctoby: HOLD DAT CONTE YOUR JUST A PIZZA MAEGHERITA HASENHUTTL

@JoeWritesftbl: Conte v Hasenhuttl. Would be a great fight but Conte would get flattened.

@Pete_Thornhill: arrogant little prick telling the Southampton bench to shush….

@markfry99: Fucking inject it

@CBBPod: Life comes at you hard sometimes…

@Jim_Mack7: Just superb. Should be available on the NHS for the endorphins it creates

@foreversaint__: F̶o̶o̶t̶b̶a̶l̶l̶ James Ward-prowse bloody hell!

@JamesMorgan92: Oh what a difference a few minutes can make #SaintsFC

@JoshW_SFC: Antonio Conte really shushed our fans after taking the lead with 20 minutes to go to go and lose 3-2. You couldn’t make this up. #SaintsFC

@SouthamptonPag1: Sleep well Antonio Conte. #SaintsFC

@crstig: What a great comeback last night. Always a pleasure to beat Spurs, but to see Conte so bitter about it is the glaçage sur le gateau! #saintsfc