Antonio Conte said he would prefer Tottenham’s Carabao Cup semi-final clash with Chelsea be cut from two legs to one with his players who tested positive for Covid still suffering the consequences.

Conte said he noticed a clear drop in intensity in the second half of Wednesday night’s 2-1 win over West Ham which he feels is due to their recent outbreak. Tottenham’s training ground was shut down after nine players contracted the virus.

Though now negative, Conte is concerned about his side’s relentless schedule.

‘Honestly if I have to decide, maybe it would be to play one game and not two games,’ Conte said when asked about the semis. ‘Especially for the situation we are living. But we have to respect the rules.’

Conte used all five of his substitutions in the second half and said: ‘Many players that played had Covid. At one point of the game the intensity dropped and for this reason I made the substitutions.

‘It was good to not concede a goal and to reach the semi-final but I know we had to manage this situation, and also this Sunday (against Crystal Palace) and then Tuesday (against Southampton).

‘This period will be very tough for us. With an important problem like Covid, I have to manage. In this situation I’m giving the chance to my players to show me they deserve to play for Tottenham and stay here. This is one positive aspect.’

On facing his old club Chelsea, where he won the Premier League title in 2017 and FA Cup in 2018, Conte said: ‘It will be nice to play against Chelsea for me. I enjoyed everything there. But now I am the manager of Tottenham and I’m ready to give everything for this club.’

Lucas Moura, the scorer of the winning goal, said: ‘Big game. Tough game. This is a competition we can win. Let’s fight for this. We need to know how to suffer together and be solid and we are solid at the moment.’

West Ham manager David Moyes said he was proud of his players, though believed the goals they conceded to Steven Bergwijn and Moura were preventable.

‘It was self-inflicted,’ he said.

Moyes did praise the players for their efforts, with West Ham missing many key men, including Michail Antonio, who has tested positive for Covid.

‘We were also missing Aaron Cresswell, Kurt Zouma, Angelo Ogbonna, Vladimir Coufal,’ Moyes added. ‘It wasn’t down to one. We missed a few.’

Meanwhile, there were violent clashes between Tottenham and West Ham supporters before this Carabao Cup tie with missiles appearing to be thrown.