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Conte says players have no power at Chelsea

Chelsea slipped to a second humiliating defeat in the space of week when they deservedly lost 4-1 to Watford at Vicarage Road on Monday night, to further intensify the pressure on their under fire coach Antonio Conte.

The Blues put in an insipid display against The Hornets, and although Tiémoué Bakayoko’s 30th minute red card hardly helped matters, the truth is that the home side looked sharper than the current Premier League Champions right from the first whistle, and were well worth what will go down as a famous victory.

After the game Conte was asked whether the display of some of his players was a message to the club’s board that they were no longer behind their coach, but the Italian quickly rebuked this suggestion when he said:

“My soul [conscience] is clear. I go to sleep without a problem that maybe, maybe, I could do this or that. I try to do everything.

“If it’s not good, the club can make a different decision. Life goes on.”

“But do you think that a club can decide to sack a coach if there is not the support of the players?”

“I think only here, only here, you think this. You think that the players have this power? Yes? This is wrong. This is wrong.

“If this happens, okay. But, I repeat, in my life when I was a player, I was captain of Juventus and never, ever, did I speak about a coach with my club.

Chelsea have been in poor form in the Premier League recently and have only won one game in 2018. Speculation about the future of their manager has been escalating in recent weeks due to poor results on the field, and his constant complaining about the club’s transfer policy.

The former Juventus coach even asked the club to make an official statement to deny his future was under threat, but no such statement has been forthcoming.

If Chelsea lose their next fixture at home to West Brom, it will be their third Premier League loss in a row, and owner Roman Abramovich has sacked every manager he has ever employed that lost three consecutive games.