Conte gets bout of the blues
ROME — Antonio Conte fears Chelsea is in for a “very difficult” season after the Blues slumped to a 3-0 Champions League loss at Roma on Tuesday.
A downbeat Conte said he and his players all had to take responsibility for the Group C capitulation, which equaled the biggest loss of the Italian’s Stamford Bridge reign.
Chelsea’s Thibaut Courtois, whose second-half saves kept the score down, was also baffled by how the Premier League champion lost its “fighting spirit” after halftime as it became the first English side to lose in this season’s Champions League.
A first-half brace from Stephan El Shaarawy rattled Chelsea badly, with the Londoners in disarray at the back after the break and its distribution bearing no resemblance to the efficient outfit which was so hard to breach last season.
Diego Perotti completed the rout in the 63rd minute for the host, and Conte told BT Sport: “Roma showed more will to fight and more desire to win the game. For this performance, we all have to take responsibility.
“When you concede three goals, you must be worried. It means something doesn’t work.”
Talking to Sky Sports, he added: “This season will be very difficult if we don’t understand quickly the right way that we have to go.
“Last season we showed great hunger, great will to do something of importance. If we think that only because our name is Chelsea and the opponent fears the name, I think this is not the right way.
“We must find the hunger we showed in all last season and in this season sometimes. We have to try to find the strength to understand and to use this loss in the right way.”
Frustrated figure
Conte has cut a frustrated figure all season on the touchline, with Chelsea’s chances of retaining its title looking slim — it already trails leader Manchester City by nine points.
Increasing media speculation about Conte being replaced in west London by compatriot Carlo Ancelotti also left him uncharacteristically irritable at a media conference last week.
The former Italy and Juven- tus manager seems even more exasperated with what he is seeing on the pitch.
Chelsea’s woeful defending at Stadio Olimpico on Tuesday made him wish that such a performance was for “one night only”.
The evidence, though, is that a lack of confidence is infecting his previously mean rearguard, as shown in particular by the lack of communication between Antonio Rudiger and his fellow defenders, which led to El Shaarawy’s second goal.
“I don’t know why in the second half we dropped our fighting spirit and our mentality,” Courtois told BT Sport.
“We have to fight back on Sunday (for the Premier League visit of Manchester United) and show the fans this was an off day.”
The only good news for the Blues was Atletico Madrid’s shock 1-1 draw at home to Azerbaijan’s Qarabag in the other Group C match.
That result means Chelsea only needs one win from its final two games to ensure qualification for the knockout stage.