With Chelsea FC currently leading Tottenham Hotspur at the top of the table by seven points, and eight games left to play. It appears we really have a Premier League title race again. Buckle up because it looks like it will be a fun and interesting ride down the stretch here.
In the press conference following Chelsea’s 3-1 win at Bournemouth, Blues Manager Antonio Conte said he thrives on pressure. Actually, more than just thriving on it, he seeks it out when it’s not present.
“I like the pressure. I live with pressure. If I don’t see pressure, I put pressure,” Conte said. “Because I think that the pressure gives you the best of yourself.”
He was smiling and chuckling a bit towards the end of that statement, so he must have been joking a bit. These quotes were arguably the most colorful that Conte made this weekend, and a perfect extension of what he said in the same spot the previous weekend.
“For sure, for you [the media] it’s a good result, because [it] makes this more interesting in the championship,” Antonio Conte said last Saturday.
“But I always said the league finishes when you have the mathematical [certainty] that you won.”
“Otherwise you must fight, you must play every game to try to win.”
“In England it doesn’t exist, an easy game. Every game will be very tough, from now until the end, if the team name is Manchester City or a team that is fighting for the relegation zone.”
Conte is absolutely right, a legitimate title race is good for the media, because it’s also good for neutrals, and everyone else in the league as a whole, other than Chelsea. Of course, Antonio Conte and his men do not want the league title race to be interesting.
“It’s very difficult to see this situation. For sure there was something, but I think it’s right also to accept the decision of the referee.
“We hope in the future to be better, the decisions. It’s a pity, but I think today it wasn’t our day. We deserved at least to draw. I don’t want to say to win, but at least a draw.
“We created many chances to score. We dominated the game.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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