Conte under pressure as Chelsea shocked
ANTONIO Conte had no doubt the pressure on his position would intensify after his Chelsea side’s stunning 3-0 defeat by Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.
The Blues head coach insists his Chelsea team, the reigning Premier League champions, are over-achieving this season – but claims he is “relaxed” if members of the club’s hierarchy view things differently.
Defeat left Chelsea in fourth place in the Premier League, just two points above Tottenham Hotspur and Conte accepted there were concerns over whether the Blues would qualify for next season’s Champions League.
“The pressure, it’s normal. It’s normal for a coach, for a manager,” said Conte (pictured, AFP). “It’s normal if you are Chelsea’s coach.
“After the first game this season, you [the media] tried to put pressure ure on my job. But I’m trying rying to do my best.”
The Italian n added: “I f s o m e o n e doesn’t think this club deser ves this [position on in the] table or deser ve this s s i t uat i on. I re p e a t : we e a r e d o i n g everything, we are doing 120 20 percent. I’m exploiting ploiting this squad at the maximum level. vel. “But, if someone doesn’t agree about this, I’m here. I have to accept every situation. I’m very relaxed about this. I know that I I’m m d doing a great job, a great w work, me and the staff and t the players.” T h e r e h a v e b e e n reports th that Conte has anger angered Chelsea’s Rus Russian billiona i r e o w n e r R o m a n A Abramovich with thinly veiled criticism of the L o n d o n club’s transf fer policy.
A s k e d w whet h e r t h e t ra r a n ns f e r busi - ness conducted by Chelsea’s top four rivals had made the task of claiming a top four finish harder, Conte replied: “We have to understand that, if we want to speak about football and if we think to understand football we know very well [a top four place] will be very difficult for us.
“If we want only to dream and not see the reality – in this case, I can tell you now we can fight to win the title this season!” added Conte, whose side area huge 18 points behind leaders Manchester City.
“It will be very important to look at the reality and to know that, if we are able to reach a place i n the Champions League, it will be a great suc- cess for us. Otherwise we have a normal season.
“My task is to try to be more realistic and try to transfer this to the players, because the players . . . if they know and understand the danger . . . But the players are fantastic in t hei r commitment. They understand very well what our situation is in this season.”
New signing Olivier Giroud watched the game from behind the dug-out but Conte said: “I don’t think now is the right moment to speak about Giroud after a bad defeat.”
“Now t he most importa nt t h i ng is to u ndersta nd we have to fight. This season will be ver y toug h. We must be ready to struggle t his season for ever y t hing.”