Chelsea manager Antonio Conte spoke to the media today ahead of tomorrow night’s Premier League clash at home against Swansea City. They will kick off 15 minutes ahead of table toppers Manchester City, who host Southampton. Chelsea comes into this one 11 points behind the Citizens, who have set a Premier League record by taking 37 points from their first 13 matches.
City also currently holds a +21 goal differential on the Blues, so if Chelsea is going to catch them this season in points, they would remain far behind in tie-breaker.
Before they can reach the blue side of Manchester, up in the top perch, they must first try and catch the red side of Manchester.
With their 4-2 win at Watford tonight, second place Manchester United moved six points clear of Chelsea temporarily. With a win tomorrow night, the Blues can close that gap to three. They are 11 behind the Red Devils in goal differential.
“Now our target must be to see the team that is before us,” the Italian told his news conference.
“In this case Manchester United. Our first target is to catch them up and if we are able to do this, then we can see the team who is staying before us. This must be our mentality and in every game we have to try to win and do our best.”
“This must be the right mentality, winning mentality.”
“We are in November and trying to do our best. We have 11 points less than Manchester City but we have played all games against the other five top teams.”
The Blues are still alive in multiple competitions, and this fact, along with the fixture congestion that accompanies the festive period, means schedule overload coming up. They have nine, count ’em nine, matches in the month of December. The Chelsea boss discussed the road ahead, and the immediate goals.
“We are in the second round of the Champions League. We have to play the quarterfinal of the Carabao Cup. For the problems that we had from the start of the season we are doing our best,” Antonio Conte added.
“At the same time we have to look at ourselves. Manchester City are going very well. If you leave them out of the table there is Manchester United and we are three points behind.”
“Manchester City are doing something incredible until now but we have to trust to continue to improve in our work in our team and try to do our best. This is the right way.”
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 corporation blogging community Chicago Now.
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