FOUR ZA ITALIA
Conte: I was very passionate as a player... now we must show the same as a team to finish top-four 2.78
ANTONIO CONTE has demanded his players show the same passion on the pitch as he shows on the sidelines — and nick Chelsea a top-four finish.
The Blues, who sit in fifth, will close the gap on fourthplaced Tottenham to two points if they can beat them at Stamford Bridge today.
But a defeat will open an eight-point gap that will be extremely difficult to overhaul, with just seven games to go.
That would leave the defending champions facing Europa League football instead of the Champions League next season.
Conte said: “It is very important for the players to show passion and enthusiasm during the game. Passion is the first important thing for the coach and the player.
“If you don’t have passion it is very difficult to reach something important as players or as a manager.
“When I was a player, I showed, in every moment, my passion inside and outside the pitch. I wasn’t a calm player,” he added, laughing.
“This is an important game because if we want to have a chance to play in the Champions League next season we need to win. There are seven games after this one and it will be very important to try to win the game.
“We must be focused on the pitch to try to reach this target but it won’t be easy because we have to play a very good team.”
The rivalry between Chelsea and Tottenham has become more serious in the past couple of seasons after Blues players admitted wanting to stop their London rivals’ title bid in 201516, with Leicester pipping Spurs to the main prize.
The 2-2 draw in May that season saw to that. Dubbed the Battle of the Bridge, 12 players were booked and it ended with a brawl.
But Conte insists his men must go into this game with the same mindset they would take into any other.
He said: “Our mentality must be the same in every game – to try to get three points. That’s the only way if you want to reach something important at the end of the season.
“We must always have this mentality against one team or another. The detail in our mind must not change.”
Conte, who is expected to leave in the summer, was asked if he could give assurances to his players that he would be at Stamford Bridge next season.
He said: “It is more simple for a player to know if in the future he can stay here.
“Our job is totally different. For us it is not sure.
“You can have a contract but you don’t know what will happen after one or two games.”
Pressed on whether or not failure to qualify for the Champions League will see him axed, Conte added: “I don’t know, I must be honest.
“This is not my problem. It’s a problem for the club.”