Conte says title race just got interesting

ANTONIO Conte admitted the title race is interesting again after his Chelsea side were beaten 2-1 by Crystal Palace.

Chelsea’s 13-game winning run at home came to a shuddering halt as Wilfried Zaha and Christian Benteke scored within three minutes after Cesc Fabregas had opened the scoring.

Chelsea are now seven points clear of second-placed Tottenham with nine games to play, beginning with Wednesday’s clash with rivals Manchester City. They still need 21 points to win the title.

“For sure, for you [the media] it’s a good result, because it makes this more interesting in the championship,” Conte said.

Meanwhile, Everton boss Ronald Koeman accused the Liverpool bench of trying to get his players sent off after the Toffees were beaten 3-1 in the Merseyside derby.

Koeman accepted midfielder Ross Barkley might have been fortunate not to receive two yellow cards for poor challenges in the Anfield contest.

But he was not happy about what he saw as repeated protests from an unspecified member of the home coaching staff.

A lively Premier League contest was won by goals from Philippe Coutinho and Divock Origi after Matthew Pennington cancelled out Sadio Mane’s early opener.

Koeman said: “Maybe you are right that he [Barkley] deserved two yellows for two tackles, but if I watch the Liverpool bench, and one Liverpool coach – not the manager but one of the coaches – the referee would have to show eight red cards to Everton.”

Elsewhere, Tottenham were rocked by first-half injuries to Victor Wanyama and Harry Winks at Turf Moor, the latter taken to hospital for emergency treatment after sliding off the pitch and damaging his ankle.

But Eric Dier’s first league goal of the season arrived on the hour, and Son Heung-min added his 15th of the campaign 13 minutes from time as Burnley suffered a rare home defeat 2-0.

Manchester United were unable to make any significant ground up from fifth place as they were held to a stalemate at home to determined West Brom.

Andy Carroll’s 50th Premier League goal put West Ham in front, but it failed to halt relegationthreatened Hull’s recent resurgence.

Carroll was on target in the 18th minute at the KCOM Stadium only for the hosts to hit back first through Andy Robertson (53) and then Andrea Ranocchia (85) to earn three more precious points and go level on 27 with Swansea.

Leicester, meanwhile, were indebted to Wilfried Ndidi’s first Premier League goal – an outstanding long-range strike in the 25th minute – as the champions won 2-0 at home to Stoke, extending new manager Craig Shakespeare’s 100 per cent record to four matches.

Jamie Vardy volleyed in the second for the Foxes, and his fifth in six matches, early on in the second half.

There was no respite for bottomof-the-table Sunderland at Watford, where Miguel Britos supplied the winning goal with a header just before the hour as the hosts prevailed 1-0.

David Moyes’ strugglers remain two points adrift of north-east neighbours Middlesbrough.