BRILLIANT HAZARD HELPS CONTE BURY ANCELOTTI ‘BULLS**T’... FOR NOW

to stay in touch with leaders Manchester City.

The gap remains nine points even after this hardfought win, but the Blues are not giving up.

On Friday Conte had blasted as “b ****** t” reports linking Carlo Ancelotti to Chelsea.

He’s had a couple of weeks of internal politics at Stamford Bridge after hitting out at the club’s transfer policy.

But when it comes to dragging every last ounce from a group of players there are still few better than the former Italy boss.

Conte had been furious about the slow start his players made when they lost at Crystal Palace two weeks ago, and you could see he’d stressed that they could not afford the same mistake again.

They were on the front foot from the start, with a neat little pass by Cesc Fabregas opening up some room for Pedro to drive a shot over the bar.

And David Luiz, who had been among those guilty of sloppiness at Selhurst Park, made no mistake when he cut out a Charlie Daniels cross before it could get close to Jermain Defoe. The Brazilian defender made another big block to stop Benik Afobe’s shot after he’d been set up by Charlie Daniels.

The sharpness Chelsea’s players were showing all should have brought them a goal on 24 minutes as Hazard reacted quickly to get on to a fluffed clearance by Asmir Begovic. He laid it perfectly into the path of Alvaro Morata only for the Spaniard to steer his shot a fraction wide of the open goal. Back in his technical area Conte watched with his hands in his pockets, looking relaxed as if he felt a goal was bound to come. And his side did have the ball in the net when Luiz’s shot, following a