Conte pulls rug under title talk Pep has that sinking feeling
CHELSEA are six points clear at the top of the Premier League following their 1-0 victory at Sunderland, but Antonio Conte is determined to silence premature title talk.
Conte is cautious about the future because although Chelsea may have a significant advantage over the other title contenders, their unconvincing performance at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday should encourage the chasing pack.
They needed a 40th minute goal from Cesc Fabregas to dispose of Sunderland, who were close to an equaliser in stoppage-time when a shot from Patrick Van Aanholt was brilliantly saved by Thibaut Courtois.
“I prefer not to look at the top of the table,” said Conte.
“We are doing something important up to now, but the league doesn’t finish today.
“There are still three games before the halfway stage of the season.”
Conte admitted Chelsea weren’t at their best but he was encouraged by the way they kept fighting to secure a 10th successive league victory.
“It’s very hard to win any game and we had to fight hard to win this one,” said Conte.
“I think we created chances to score a second goal and kill the game before Sunderland had a big chance to daw at the end. We needed a great save from Thibaut to win it.
“I was particularly pleased for Cesc because it was only the third game he has started. He showed fantastic commitment.”
Fabregas, still adapting to Chelsea’s 3-4-3 system, added: “The performance was really good and I felt we were very, very strong.
“Now we want to keep winning. Hopefully we can continue like this and send out a strong message.
“People forget that it’s only my second time in my career that I’ve played this system. My teammates have played it much more, but I’m getting used to it.
“There are a lot of players who I can find with passes and there’s protection behind me. I’m enjoying it a lot.” Chelsea are closing in on Arsenal’s record of 14 successive victories, achieved over two seasons, as they prepare for a trip to Crystal Palace and home games against Bournemouth and Stoke over Christmas.
They are matches that Chelsea will be expected to win, but the same was said about their visit to the Stadium of Light, where Sunderland have scored only 10 goals and now won just two of their eight home matches.
“It is not easy to win 10 games in a row in this league, so I’m pleased for my players.
“They deserve it because of their commitment and workrate in training sessions and every game,” said Conte.
David Moyes, the Sunderland manager, is facing a fight to avoid relegation, but he believes the strong showing against Chelsea provides hope for the future.
“We can come off saying we have had a right go at a top team,” he said.
“We got better in the second half and finished strongly, but didn’t quite do enough to get something out of the game.
“Their keeper made two great saves and I thought Patrick’s shot at the end was in, but it was really good save.
“You need a top keeper and a top striker and we have that here, but so have Chelsea and they are a real threat.
“It’s too early to say if they will be champions. We restricted them to a few scoring opportunities but we couldn’t stop them controlling the game.” — AFP MANCHESTER City have been dealt a blow after German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan sustained a knee injury that manager Pep Guardiola fears will sideline him for “several months”.
The Germany international had to be substituted in the 44th minute of City’s 2-0 Premier League win over Watford at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday after an accidental collision with Nordin Amrabat.
Guardiola revealed afterwards he had sustained suspected knee ligament damage.
“We are going to miss him for a long time,” said Guardiola. “This is the worst news.
“I’m so so sad. The doctors think he has ligament damage, but he doesn’t know exactly [how serious it is].
“We will know tomorrow [Thursday], but it doesn’t look good. I think it will be several months. He is so sad about it.”
Gundogan, 26, joined City from Borussia Dortmund in June for a reported fee of £20-million (R354million).
He had dislocated his kneecap in May while training with Germany, which ruled him out of Euro 2016.
Spinal surgery had previously cost him the entire 2013-14 campaign.
Initially sidelined after undergoing surgery at the end of last season, he has impressed since making his debut in a 4-0 Champions League win over Borussia Moenchengladbach on September 14.
To date Gundogan has made 15 appearances for City in all competitions, scoring five goals.
His injury cast a long shadow over a home victory for City – their first since beating Bournemouth on September 17 – that was secured by goals from Pablo Zabaleta and David Silva. “Football is emotional when you don’t get the results you expect,” said Guardiola, whose side had lost to Chelsea and Leicester City in their two previous league games.
“The last three or four games at home weren’t good in terms of results, but today we won.
“We are going to analyse the result, but we have to focus on the result because today the players showed me again the form they showed at the beginning of the season.”
Zabaleta echoed his manager’s comments about the importance of the victory after scoring his first goal in over two years.
“It has been a long time without a win playing at home. It has been strange,” he said.
“We had the clean sheet we’ve been talking about and were solid defensively.”
Zabaleta is out of contract at the end of the current season and not expected to remain with the club, but Guardiola paid tribute to the veteran Argentinian defender.
“We need his spirit. He is part of this history and played well with and without the ball,” said the former Barcelona coach.
“On the pitch and in the dressingroom he is important for us.”
Watford manager Walter Mazzarri has injury concerns of his own after midfielder Roberto Pereyra came off after half an hour.
“The problem is his knee,” the Italian.
“And we need to understand what it is exactly, because we still don’t know. We will know in the next few days.”
Mazzarri chose to rest striker Troy Deeney ahead of the weekend clash with Sunderland, handing a first start to 20-year-old Jerome Sinclair, a £4-million (R70-million) close-season signing from Liverpool.
“We have had three games in a week and also Troy has four yellow cards,” said Mazzarri. “Also I wanted to get him in good condition and be ready for the game against Sunderland.
“Jerome worked a lot for the team, and the entire squad. He sacrificed a lot. He was a reason they didn’t have many goal opportunities. He did very important work all around the pitch.” — AFP said