Pundits ‘stupid’ to criticise tactics to avoid

Italian unrepentant over Chelsea’s ‘anti-football’ City not thinking about records, says Guardiola

Antonio Conte branded Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville “stupid” after the pundits condemned Chelsea’s performance against Manfrom chester City. Redknapp claimed Chelsea’s approach was “anti-football” and a “crime against football” on Sky Sports while his colleague Neville said Conte’s players were “woeful” and “embarrassing” after accusing them of “just watching Man City play – like mannequins”.

But Conte hit back by insisting it would be reckless to play openly against City and cited Arsenal’s recent, back-to-back 3-0 hammerings by the runaway Premier League leaders as examples of why he approached the game cautiously.

“I think in this moment you have to accept every criticism but I am not so stupid to play against Manchester City open and to lose 3-0 or 4-0,” the Chelsea manager said.

“If I remember well, a few days ago, Arsenal played twice against them and then you criticise a lot [Arsene] Wenger because they conceded three goals in only 30 minutes. I think the pundit has to use their head to understand when you speak about tactics because I think you must have knowledge to speak about tactics and not only to speak in a stupid way.”

The defeat was Chelsea’s fourth in their past five league outings, but while Conte said his side had reason for regret in the losses to Bournemouth, Watford and Manchester United, he said City were simply “unstoppable”. The reigning champions, who have won just twice since the turn of the year in the league, now trail Pep Guardiola’s team by 25 points.

“I think that we must have a big regret for the defeat against Bournemouth, against Watford and against United but I don’t think today because I think we played against a team that [have been] shown to be a strong team,” Conte said. “I think they showed the difference between them and us in this moment – 25 points is a big gap and I think that we can have regret for the other games but not for this because I think the effort of the players was an important effort.

“When you play against Manchester City, this kind of team, they are showing fantastic quality but at the same time a fantastic mentality. When you match quality and mentality you become unstoppable.”

Conte said his players had followed his instructions but that Bernardo Silva’s goal 35 seconds into the second half left them facing a huge task. “We prepared the game