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Harry Kane is “very tired” ahead of the World Cup, Spurs boss Conte warns.

Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte says Harry Kane is ‘really tired’ after a lackluster performance against Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup and just over a week before he leads England into action at the World Cup.

Conte blamed the lack of other options available to start Kane in Spurs’ 2-0 League Cup loss to Forest on Wednesday.

The England captain was substituted on the hour mark but has now started all 21 games for Tottenham in all competitions this season.

England manager Gareth Southgate names his squad for the World Cup on Thursday.

Conte is currently without Son Heung-min with a broken eye socket, while Richarlison and Dejan Kulusevski are returning from injury.

“He was really, really tired. Yesterday we had a really soft, really soft training session and at some point he stopped to recover some energy,” Conte said.

“I repeat that he is fine, it’s only tiredness, but it’s normal because Harry has played all the matches. When you have a player like him, it’s hard to decide not to play with him. »

To make room in the calendar for a first World Cup mid-season, the group stages of European club competitions have been compressed into a two-month period.

When Spurs take on Leeds on Saturday, they will have played 13 games in 42 days before the World Cup break.

“Harry Kane has shown that he is also a very good man,” added Conte, thanking his players for not withdrawing from games to save themselves for their country.

“But it’s not just him, it’s the same for the other players. [Pierre-Emile] Hojbjerg, [Rodrigo] Bentancur, [Ivan] Perisic, [Eric] Say. We faced a bad injury situation and we come to the end in trouble. Now we must try to rest and recover energy. »

Forest got the win thanks to goals from Renan Lodi and Jesse Lingard.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has said he could look to beef up his “reduced squad” in the January transfer window, following his side’s Carabao Cup loss to Brighton.

The Gunners manager made 10 changes to the side that beat Chelsea last weekend which put them back at the top of the Premier League. Brighton left the Emirates Stadium with a 3-1 victory.

Eddie Nketiah opened the scoring for the hosts with his 11th goal in 12 Carabao Cup outings, but Brighton came back strong.

Danny Welbeck equalized from the penalty spot after the former Arsenal player was fouled on debutant Karl Hein, the Estonian keeper slipping before getting back up just in time to trip Welbeck.

Kaoru Mitoma and Tariq Lamptey scored late to qualify Brighton, as Arteta’s call for cavalry – Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Magalhaes, Granit Xhaka and Oleksandr Zinchenko all off the bench – elicited no reaction .

With Arsenal top of the league and winners of the Europa League group, Arteta believes reinforcements may be needed during the window to cement their position.

“That’s the team we have,” he replied when asked if the result showed the need to spend in the transfer market.

“We have to use in the best possible way and today we fell short, especially because we didn’t do what we have to do on both grounds to win a game of football. We paid that price.

“It’s the same team as when we win. I said from day one that we had a short squad because in the end we left a few players. That’s what we have.

“If everyone is available and nobody is injured, we are OK, but as soon as there is, we know what it is. It’s not new. I think I said it the first day after the transfer window. »

Pushed on the fact that January could change things, Arteta added: “It is a window that is open and we will have to discuss the opportunities that we have, the capacity that we have for any change and to be on the market for opportunities because we don’t know what will happen the last game before the World Cup.

“So a lot of options are open”.

Newcastle keeper Nick Pope saved three of Crystal Palace's penalties in the penalty shootout.  Getty Images

Newcastle United had to resort to penalties to overcome Crystal Palace after a 0-0 draw at St James’ Park.

Nick Pope will be part of Gareth Southgate’s England squad for Qatar and showed he could be called up when needed in a penalty shootout by stopping three of Palace’s five shots on goal.

Neither goalkeeper managed to stop one of 20 shots on goal at the London Stadium in Blackburn’s win over West Ham.

The game was tied 2-2 after 90 minutes, with Ben Brereton Diaz equalizing two minutes from time for Rovers.

Blackburn converted all 10 penalties and went through when West Ham captain for the night Angelo Ogbonna hit the bar.

Boubacar Traore’s goal five minutes from time gave Wolves a 1-0 win against Leeds.

Meanwhile, Southampton progressed on penalties against Sheffield Wednesday after a 1-1 draw with Nathan Jones, who is expected to be appointed as the Saints’ new manager on Thursday.

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