Antonio Conte drops major selection hint as Tottenham dealt huge injury blow for Everton clash

Antonio Conte has admitted he expects to make changes to his Tottenham Hotspur side against Everton today (17.30 BST).

The Toffees travel to north London on the back of a 2-1 loss to Manchester United last weekend.

And Frank Lampard knows his troops are in for another tough test against Spurs, who are third in the Premier League.

Tottenham head into the game after defeating Eintracht Frankfurt 3-2 in the Champions League.

But with Spurs having to negotiate a busy schedule ahead of the World Cup, Conte admits he’s ready to tweak his line-up.

He said: “I’m not telling this, but for sure I repeat there are important roles that if the players don’t drop the performance they could play.

“In this moment, Pierre [Emile Hojbjerg], Rodrigo Bentancur, also Harry [Kane], Eric [Dier] are playing amazing football and in this moment I think that it’s better to stay on the pitch and to play, to start the game.

“Then I hope to continue to have this type of performance for the future. But we have a lot of games in front of us, and every player has to be ready. You don’t know what can happen. Injuries, the form can drop. I have to be good to understand the moment to make the right rotation.

“Tomorrow I think that we change something, but it’s OK. It’s positive, because it means that I trust all my players.”

One player who Tottenham will be without is Dejan Kulusevski.

The attacking midfielder has a hamstring injury and will not be risked.

Conte said: “I think we need to have a bit of patience with him. Don’t take stupid risks, because we have to play a lot of games from now until November.

“It will be very important to recover him very well. At this moment, he’s not 100 per cent sure to be really fit, to be in perfect physical condition. For this reason it’s good to respect the opinion of the doctors of the players.”