Antonio Conte 'bored' of explaining why Chelsea have failed to defend their title

Getty Images
Vaishali Bhardwaj8 April 2018

Antonio Conte believes Chelsea's draw with West Ham on Sunday was a great example to show why the Premier League champions have struggled this season.

Chelsea led the Hammers 1-0 thanks to Cesar Azpilicueta's 36th-minute goal before substitute Javier Hernandez came on and salvaged a point for David Moyes' relegation battlers.

Despite Conte sending on Pedro, Emerson Palmieri and Olivier Giroud, Chelsea could not find the winner in a game they had dominated and had had several chances to score in.

And Conte admitted he is getting "bored" of constantly repeating why he believes Chelsea - who currently trail fourth-placed Tottenham by 10 points - have disappointed this term.

In Pictures | Chelsea vs West Ham | 08/04/2018

1/26

Speaking to reporters at Stamford Bridge, Conte said: "We must be frustrated with this game, for the final result. But I think this game describes very clearly our season. This game describes it very well.

"Many games where we put in a good performance, creating many chances to score, but we are not clinical. How many times have I said that we didn't take the chances we created? A lot of times. And then, one chance for West Ham, we concede a goal.

"This game describes it very well our season. We are talking about improving, improving, improving. But today, another not positive result because we are talking about improving. We must win this game. We must win it.

"I'm very frustrated and I hope my players go home and stay frustrated because, in this way, we have the right mentality. Otherwise, if we accept this result and say we were unlucky today, we are not building anything positive for the future."

Chelsea's task of trying to secure Champions League football for next season looks increasingly unlikely after their latest slip-up in the Premier League.

Conte believes a major reason why the Blues have struggled to see out games this season has been down to their inability to be as clinical as their top-four rivals.

In Pictures | Chelsea pay tribute to Ray Wilkins | 08/04/2018

1/24

He added: "When I talk, I'm frustrated for everyone. For myself. For the players. We win together, lose together, draw together. When we have this type of result we have to share the responsibility together, not with this or another.

"But, I repeat, it's very difficult for me to explain today this game. We are talking the truth after we have dominated the game, created a lot of opportunities to score the second, third or fourth goal, we concede and draw.

"We must be realistic. If we are not able to win this type of game, we are talking about what? About what? I like to continue to say 'we need to continue to work and improve', but you must win this game if you want to reach a target [a Champions League spot].

"The other teams are clinical. They create chances, they are ready to suffer and win the game. At the end of the season, I think we'll have struggled a lot and this game describes our whole season.

"In the first half, in the second half, we created a lot of chances to score. You must be clinical and score. Football is simple. If you score, you win.

"Otherwise, if you score only once, you stay in balance - especially in England - and anything can happen to the end. A corner in the final minute, you risk losing the win.

"This is not right. We must improve but, this season, I'm repeating this many times and I'm getting bored. You're listening always to the same: not clinical."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in