Antonio Conte Pleased With Chelsea's Performance Despite Their Crucial Loss to Manchester City

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte was happy with his side's performance against Manchester City, despite the Blues losing the match 1-0. 

The Italian told Chelsea's official website: "I think we have to look at ourselves and try to put everything into every game. We did that today. Damage or no damage, we have to go game by game, do our best and then we’ll see at the end of the season how we finish the league. 

"When I see my players have given everything we must be pleased despite the bad result."

IAN KINGTON/GettyImages

Chelsea's club-record signing Alvaro Morata had to leave the pitch just after the half an hour mark of the match after suffering an injury, Conte said regarding the incident: It’s a muscular problem. I don’t think it’s serious. He said to me: “Coach I prefer to stop, otherwise I risk having a bad injury.”

However, the former Juventus manager did all but rule Morata out of international duty for Spain: ‘I don’t know. The doctor in the next few days will check the situation but I don’t think he will be available for the national team". 

The Chelsea gaffer also criticised his side having to play three important matches in the space of a week: "On this issue I have already spoken and to repeat the same opinion is not good. We don’t want to use it as an excuse. To play another massive game two days later you must consider the fatigue in the legs of your players.

"It’s normal when you play three massive games in seven days you must consider this aspect but we needed to take the risk because Morata, for us, is a very important player."

Regarding his team's start to the season, Conte was much more positive: ‘You have to consider that in seven games we’ve played Arsenal, Tottenham, Man City and Everton. Our start wasn’t so easy. I think we have the points we deserve."

Chelsea are currently 4th in the Premier League table, six points behind both Manchester clubs, who are on 19 points from seven games.