Chelsea manager Antonio Conte believes they must be “realistic” of their place in Premier League title race. The current champions, the Blues won their fifth title the previous season but are not sure of keeping it this time.
We Must Be Realistic says Conte
With a fantastic goal by Eden Hazard, Chelsea placed a victory over Bournemouth this Saturday at the Vitality Stadium. The 51st-minute goal helped the team to stay in the race for the top four in the Premier League.
Conte said after the match: “At this moment we must be realistic by going game by game. We have 19 points and we deserve to have 19 points. We are first in our group in the Champions League. We went into the next round of the Carabao Cup after going out in the second round last season.”
We must be #realistic – #Conte #unsure on Chelsea defending their title https://t.co/8wFYN8X7dY pic.twitter.com/dcuQfXREcg
— newsAnglr Sports (@sportsanglr) October 29, 2017
He continued further, “I’m very happy with this group. There are players who are very honest, players who want to fight until the end for something important. Are we able to do this? I don’t know. But we will try to stay there. I know very well that, in England in this league, there are six top teams, very strong. Four go into the Champions League. Two have to stay out and play Europa League. Last season we saw this. It was very, very, very difficult.”
He added: “For us, it’s very important to overcome this period. We started this season with a lot of problems: starting in the summer with Hazard’s surgery, then an injury to Pedro, then two red cards for our players and an injury for N’Golo Kante with the national team, then Victor Moses. We faced a lot of problems. But we stay there. We try to do our best in every moment.”
Speaking about the match he said: “This was a good win, also because the other teams [around us] all won, apart from Tottenham who lost. It was important to build on the win against Watford and against Everton in the Carabao Cup. The only negative aspect is when you create so many chances to score, you have to take them. If you keep the result only at 1-0, you risk drawing in the end. But for the rest, I’m very happy. We played good football against a very good team, with a great organization, a good coach.”
Conte is happy of the win over Bournemouth.
AUTHOR’S TAKE
Chelsea is already 9 points behind Manchester City who are leading the standings after beating West Brom 3-2. Conte’s men will now prepare for their Champions League fight with Roma on Tuesday. Conte is hoping to see his midfielder, N’golo Kante in the match who is out because of a hamstring injury.
822 total views, 822 views today
The post Antonio Conte Unsure about Defending Premier League title appeared first on The12thMan.
