Antonio Conte said on Saturday that Chelsea’s title defence was all but over after four defeats in the opening 16 games of the season and added that, in his opinion, it had never even got off the ground.
After the Premier League champions lost 1-0 at relegation-threatened West Ham, Conte blamed fatigue in his players and what he considers a thin squad for the club’s demise from top spot.
And he added that he knew as much would happen when pre-season training started with Chelsea having made no early moves in the transfer market.
Antonio Conte has ruled his Chelsea side out of the title race after their fourth defeat
Conte said: ‘If you lose four games in 16, it means your title race never started. We started with a defeat in our home game against Burnley.
‘I think you can justify the defeat against Man City as we played after two days (after the Atletico Madrid game) but then when you lose to Crystal Palace at the bottom and now to lose again against West Ham which is in a bad position … it means you are not in the title race.
‘If you want to stay in the title race you need consistency in results and this is not our case this season. We have to change.
Marko Arnautovic stunned Chelsea as West Ham were 1-0 victors at the London Stadium
Conte claimed his Chelsea players were ‘tired’ during Saturday’s defeat by the Hammers and that to be in the title race they could only afford to lose ‘once or twice’ until this phase
‘We will try to do our best this season but if you remember I said it would be very, very tough. I don’t want to remind you but it’s true.
‘Many players were tired today. It’s normal when you play every three days. We started our pre-season with same players and a lot of players are playing almost always. For sure, you have to pay something for this.
‘My experience tells me if you want to stay in the title race, in the first part of the season you can lose once or twice. When you have these stats it’s impossible to think you are in title race.’
Conte insisted he predicted the demise of his Chelsea players during pre season
Though Chelsea subsequently signed Alvaro Morata, Davide Zappacosta, Danny Drinkwater, Tiemoué Bakayoko, Antonio Rudiger and Willy Cabellero last summer, having lost Diego Costa, Nemanja Matic, Nathan Ake and Asmir Begovic, the squad looks short of options given the extra Champions League fixtures this season.
But Conte insisted he would tell the board what he thought but emphasised that transfers were out of his hands.
‘I don’t want to talk about January transfer window because we’ve just started December,’ Conte said. ‘I think it’s better to speak about this topic with the club and tell my opinion.
The Italian manager claimed he has little or no influence on the club’s transfer policy
‘But, I repeat, the last decision (on transfers) is the club’s. I can give my opinion but the last decision is the club and it’s right to do this.’
Captain Gary Cahill admitted that Chelsea’s defeat by their London neighbours was poor.
‘We were miles off it from the start of the game,’ he said. ‘We allowed them to get the early goal, which is a poor goal to concede, we have been tight at the back recently and that was a poor one to concede.
‘We had plenty of time to get back into it but that laid the start. We just didn’t play our stuff. We were just not at the races – for whatever reason that is. It’s very disappointing to come off and feel like that.’