Tottenham's Dejan Kulusevski has revealed head coach Antonio Conte wants him to "kill the opponent in a sporting way" in order to become more ruthless.

Spurs sit fourth in the Premier League having won two and drawn one of their opening three games as they look to follow up last season's fourth-place finish, where a strong run at the end meant they pipped fierce rivals Arsenal to the final Champions League qualification spot.

Kulusevski has impressed since arriving from Juventus at the beginning of the year and has started this campaign well, scoring and assisting in the opening day 4-1 victory over Southampton.

But the 22-year-old says Conte is demanding even more from him, despite the versatile winger having 15 Premier League goal involvements in 21 appearances since his arrival in North London in January.

"I can attack the goal more for sure. Sometimes I'm just in a different world when I play," Kulusevski told Standard Sport. "I feel so comfortable sometimes, so I just play and have fun. But [Conte] doesn't want me to have fun. He wants me to kill the opponent in a sporting way.

"I feel very good. I think I can do better but the important thing is always to be humble, to work harder because we have a goal this season and I think we can do it.

"For sure it's easier with a pre-season. You have more time to adapt. Last season you came into the game and you had one chance. If you played bad you did not play again. It was more pressure. Now I feel much better, a better start and physically in better form."

Spurs' strong opening to the season has been aided by their threat from set-pieces, with Harry Kane scoring headers from corners in successive games after bagging against Chelsea and then Wolves at the weekend.

And Kulusevski has playfully suggested that new set-piece coach Gianni Vio should be asking for a better contract because of Tottenham's newfound potency from dead-ball situations.

"I told [Vio] three times that we have to give him more money. He has to get a pay rise for sure! Shout out to him. He's very important," Kulusevski added.

"He makes a difference, like you can see. At the end of the day, we won on a set-piece so we have to keep working on that. It's not the funnest thing in the world but it makes results. It helps a lot. We have to keep listening to him and do what he says.

"I don't remember that we scored so many [from set-pieces] last season but it's very important. Now we have to get better. Every time we get a set-piece we have to believe we can score."