Conte cautious of Lukaku strike threat

LONDON: Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has confirmed he was paying close attention to Everton striker Romelu Lukaku this week – but with a view to stopping him scoring against the Blues tomorrow rather than signing him in the summer.

Premier League leaders Chelsea have been repeatedly linked with the Belgian they sold to Everton for £28 million as a possible replacement for Diego Costa, who has admirers in China.

Lukaku is the league’s top scorer with 24 goals to Costa’s 19 and will provide Everton’s main threat as Chelsea seek to extend their four-point lead over second-placed Tottenham Hotspur at Goodison Park.

“I think he is a really good player and is scoring a lot of goals in this season, not only this season, we must pay great attention,” Conte said yesterday.

“But it is the same, to find the right solution to stop them. We must find the right solution to stop Lukaku and all the other players.”

Asked which striker he would prefer in his team, Conte said: “For me, my players are the best in the world. I don’t change them with others.”

A win for Chelsea would confirm qualification for next season’s Champions League in a game being billed as their last serious hurdle to winning the title, with only Middlesbrough, West Bromwich Albion, Watford and Sunderland to overcome.

But Conte was keen not to look beyond tomorrow, high- lighting the need for his team to keep a clean sheet after conceding in their past 11 games, including Tuesday’s 4-2 win over Southampton.

“It’s important to improve, to work on the situations we’re conceding the goals. We are working on it. Everton are a really good team, a strong team, with great players in their squad and a physical team,” said Conte.

“When we started this season, our first target was to play in the Champions League next season. It’s an important target for the club, for the fans, for the players.

“But, for sure, now we stay in a position to try also to win the league.”

Conte got an early sight of silverware this week when he sat beside Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to watch the club’s under-18 team beat Manchester City 6-2 on aggregate, going into the dressing room afterwards to congratulate the youngsters.

“The work in the academy is very important to Chelsea,” he said.

“In this team I saw four, five players with good prospects.”

Meanwhile, Everton need to boost their goal-scoring options before next season whether the Premier League’s top marksman Romelu Lukaku stays at the club or not, manager Ronald Koeman said.

British media reported last week that Everton were asking a world record fee of £100 million for Lukaku, who has scored 24 league goals this season – 20 more than any other player in the squad.

While Koeman is hoping the 23-year-old Belgium international will stay, he wants to build an attacking line that can share the goalscoring responsibilities next season.

“I don’t know (if Lukaku will stay). We will see what will happen at the end of the season,” Koeman said ahead of tomorrow’s home clash with league leaders Chelsea.

“First of all we like to keep the best players but that is difficult. I think we need (more options) offensive wise.

“The scoring gap between Lukaku and rest of the squad is too big. We need more players aged 26, 27, 28.”

Everton, lying seventh, have maintained an impressive home record this season, losing just once in 17 games.

Having made Goodison Park a fortress in his first season at the club, Koeman believes opponents are now wary of the threat his side can pose.

“You want your home form to be good, to be intimidating and for the whole experience for opposition teams to be intimidating,” Koeman added.

“We have good momentum at home right now... Opposition teams have more doubts these days when they come to Goodison, and that’s a good thing.”

Chelsea thrashed Everton 5-0 in the reverse fixture at Stamford Bridge in November. Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino said he would be disappointed if his team failed to win the league title this season, despite the fourpoint gap separating them from leaders Chelsea.

Spurs, who last won the league in 1961, stuttered in last season’s run-in to concede the title to surprise package Leicester City.

Pochettino believes his squad have since improved their ability to focus as they prepare to host Arsenal in tomorrow’s North London derby.

“I will be very disappointed if we don’t win the title,” Pochettino said yesterday.

“...My feeling is now, so close, only four points, but massive when only five games to play...

“I don’t remember last season too much; we’re focused on a completely different season and a new moment.”

White Hart Lane could be staging its final local derby this weekend as Spurs are hoping to move to a new 61 000-seat stadium in the 2018/19 season after a year of playing at Wembley.

“For us it is important to try to be ready and prepare ourselves to try to play in the best way,” Pochettino added.

“We know what the derby means, and for our fans, and maybe the last derby at White Hart Lane.”

Spurs are unbeaten at home in 17 league games season but have failed to claim a local derby victory since 2015. Sunderland manager David Moyes has said he “knows how to run a club” and defended his credentials after being jeered by some supporters during Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat at fellow relegation candidates Middlesbrough.

Basement-side Sunderland, who have been battling the drop for the last four seasons, are 12 points adrift of the safety zone with five games to play as they prepare to host 13th-placed Bournemouth today.

Moyes, who was appointed at the start of the season, said Sunderland’s managers have shouldered the majority of the blame for the failures over recent years at the Stadium of Light.

“I’m fortunate that I know a lot more about the running of the club and what goes on so I’m a little bit privy to that,” Moyes said yesterday.

“I think supporters are entitled to shout and vent their frustrations, and there’s been frustrations here for four or five years, but the manager will always take the brunt of it.

“All I want is the supporters to get behind the players and make sure we give the players every opportunity to win the game.”