Victor Moses was out on injury and unable to help Chelsea maintain their top-four status as Manchester United defeated Conte’s men 2-1 over the weekend.
The defeat pushed The Blues down to fifth place on 53 points, two points adrift of the fourth spot. Chelsea took the lead via a goal by William and was hoping to at least make it through the game without conceding any goals. Surely luck was not on their side, as many would term the match ‘the wake-up call for Romelu Lukaku’.
Lukaku has underperformed considerably in United’s past matches, but this time it would seem he finally found his football spirit as a goal from a reborn Lukaku and Jesse Lingard crushed Chelsea’s hopes of a win or draw.
Conte expressed his disappointment at the final results of the game, speaking at the post-match conference.
“I think a draw was the fair result for this game. But we are talking about a defeat and that’s all,”
Speaking on Alvaro Morata’s late disallowed goal Conte said; “I must be honest, I didn’t see the situation, but if you’re telling me Alvaro Morata wasn’t offside, I think VAR is very important, especially in England. There are a lot of moments in the game where there are things to super-check.
We had to be more clinical, instead, we kept the game open, and the opponent made us pay. Manchester United are a great team, and we must be disappointed because I repeat today, we could have done better.”
Conte continued; “We know there is a battle [for the top four] and it will be difficult to find a place in the Champions League.
We had a great chance to get a good result against Manchester United, but instead, we talk about a defeat.
You must be the best team at the end of the game, not just in the first half. We had a great chance to take three points here. Now we have to start to work this season as the league is very difficult and we need to fight for a place in the Champions League. I hope the players realize this soon.”
“Luck is important for every team, but this season we have not been so lucky. It is disappointing after this performance to finish with a defeat,” he added.
