The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Chelsea title push stalls at Old Trafford
Premier league: Clues Boss Cohte sAys they hAse 50% chAhce of wihhihg title As Skurs close ih
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte accepted Tottenham were back in the title race after suffering a potentially damaging loss at the hands of his predecessor Jose Mourinho.
Goals from Marcus Rashford and Ander Herrera condemned the Premier League leaders to defeat against Mourinho’s Manchester United and left them just four points ahead of Spurs with six games to play.
Chelsea led the table by 10 points at the start of April and Conte, whose side were also beaten by Crystal Palace a fortnight ago, accepted the blame for the latest slip-up.
The Italian said: “I think that the impact was very tough today, but when you play at Old Trafford it is normal to have this type of impact against a really strong team as United.
“We didn’t play a good game and United deserved to win the game. They showed more desire, more ambition, more motivation to win.
“It is very simple, but in this case the fault is of the coach. It means the coach wasn’t able to transfer the right concentration, desire, ambition to win this type of game.
“We have to think that there are six finals from now until the end. The league is open and we have a 50% probability to win the league.”
United’s performance was one of their best since Mourinho took charge last summer and the Portuguese praised his players’ attitude.
He said: “I think we have had very good performances – Arsenal here, Tottenham here, when we played really well. But today I think was a special performance because it’s also a special opponent – the leaders, the way they play.
“I think we played really well, a very solid performance. We gave them double problems. We gave them problems when they had the ball because we controlled very well and we gave them problems when we recovered the ball because we were really sharp and fast and aggressive in our transitions.
Spurs had turned up the heat with a 4-0 lunchtime win over Bournemouth on Saturday with goals from Mousa Dembele, Son Heung-min, Harry Kane and Vincent Janssen.
Liverpool reclaimed third place from Manchester City with a 1-0 win at West Brom yesterday. Roberto Firimino’s header secured the victory.
City won 3-0 at Southampton on Saturday night. Vincent Kompany scored his first goal in 20 months with LeroySaneandSergioAgueroalsonetting.