Watford 4 Chelsea 1
Antonio Conte’s job is hanging by a thread after Chelsea suffered another humiliating league defeat. Humbled 3-0 at home by Bournemouth last week, the reigning champions were thrashed 4-1 by Watford at Vicarage Road last night.
The Times reports that defeat against West Bromwich Albion next Monday could spell the end for Conte, while The Sun claims that Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich will fire the Italian and replace him with either Carlo Ancelotti or Luis Enrique.
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Hopes of retaining their Premier League crown vanished a long time ago but back-to-back defeats for the Blues have left them with a fight on their hands to finish in the top four. Currently fourth, they are just a point above Tottenham and now only five ahead of Arsenal in sixth.
Conte arrived at Stamford Bridge in the summer of 2016, following Chelsea’s failure to finish in the top four in the 2015-16 season. The Italian brought about an impressive transformation in the club’s fortunes, guiding them to the title nine months later.
This season has been anything but impressive - with just two wins from their last ten matches - and Conte had the indifferent air of a fatalist when he spoke to the BBC after the walloping at Watford.
“My position? It is the same,” he replied to their question. “I stay here, try to work and put all of myself into the work. The pressure? Which pressure? What is the pressure?” Such a facetious response is unlikely to go down well with Abramovich given the manner of last night’s capitulation.
Things started to unravel for Chelsea on the half-hour mark when Tiemoue Bakayoko was sent off for his second booking.
The Hornets then took the lead three minutes before the interval when Troy Deeney slotted home a penalty after Thibaut Courtois’ questionable foul on Gerard Deulofeu.
Conte probably thought his side had scraped a draw when Eden Hazard equalised on 82 minutes but that was just the prelude to an extraordinary final few minutes during which Daryl Janmaat, Deulofeu and Roberto Pereyra all found the back of the visitors’ net.
Admitting that his side looked “uncomfortable”, Conte added: “We tried to pay football but I think today we didn’t show this. In this situation, the fault is the coach’s, maybe I made a bad decision with the starting XI… during the game it is difficult to change something; afterwards you can understand it.”
Conte promised that his side will continue “to fight a lot this season” but the rallying cry is likely to fall on deaf ears with The Times reporting that Abramovich will give the Italian a further week to turn things around, but that defeat to West Brom on Monday would be the final straw.
The Evening Standard believes the Russian won’t wait that long and the “only message from the powers-that-be likely to come now will be confirmation of a P45 heading his way”.
Asked if he would have trouble sleeping after this latest disaster, Conte replied: “I go to sleep without a problem. I try to do everything. If it’s not good, the club can make a different decision. Life goes on.”
