There will be a new Premier League champion this season; so says the manager of the current reigning champs. Chelsea fell at the London Stadium today 1-0 and this setback, coupled with another recent defeat to a London club near the bottom of the table, Crystal Palace, was enough to make Chelsea boss Antonio Conte realize the title defense is now over.
Conte stated, after the Blues fell for the fourth time in league play this season, “it is impossible” to think that his side is still in the title race. Losing the Hammers was especially demoralizing, as they haven’t beaten anyone in league play since September.
“To talk about the title race after a defeat I think is a bit strange,” Conte said.
“Especially as this is the fourth defeat this season in 16 games. When you have this task it is impossible to think that you are in the title race. It is impossible. My experience is this, that if you want to stay in the race for the title, in the first part of the season you can lose once, twice.”
“After 16 games if you lose four games it means you never started this race. We started with a defeat in our home game against Burnley. We lost another game.”
The two Manchester clubs have a game in hand on Chelsea, heading into their derby tomorrow. United are three points ahead of Chelsea, while City are 11 points clear.
“We have a lot of reasons to justify the defeat against Man City because we played after two days,” Conte added. “But then you lose against Crystal Palace at the bottom and now to lose again against West Ham who at this moment are in a bad position in the table, you can’t lose points in these games,” Conte added.
“It means you are not in the title race. You have to change, to do our best in this season. I said before this season would be very, very tough, very difficult and this is the truth.”
Conte was referencing the fact that last year’s side, who finished mid-table the previous season, didn’t have the added workload of European football, a responsibility that this year’s side has had to work through. They are doing so with a smaller squad, as Chelsea have sent a number of players on loan.
The Blues will now focus on playing for a top four finish, as well as whichever opponent they draw on Monday in the Champions League knockout round.
West Ham are currently 18th, even with the win while Palace are dead last. Losing to two of the three relegation slotted teams was just catastrophic for Antonio Conte and Chelsea.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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