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Chelsea winger Willian has fuelled speculation of a growing rift with manager Antonio Conte that could lead to his possible exit from Stamford Bridge after using emojis to obscure the Italian from a celebratory social media post after winning the FA Cup over the weekend.

Willian is thought to have had a strained relationship with Conte for the past two seasons. He only started 20 of his 36 Premier League appearances in 2017/18 and it was a similar story in the title winning 2016/17 campaign when he started just 15 times.

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The Brazilian was also left on the bench until the 91st minute at Wembley on Saturday as Chelsea narrowly beat Manchester United 1-0 to lift the trophy.

Taking to social media, Willian subsequently posted an image of the whole Chelsea team celebrating after the silverware presentation. What stood out is that three seemingly deliberately placed trophy emojis to effectively cut Conte out of the photograph.

In the hours since, Sky Sports have now once more claimed that Willian is a target for Manchester United where he would reunite with ex-Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.

It is said that the 29-year-old, who only has two more seasons left on his current Chelsea contract, wants to leave Stamford Bridge in the event that Conte remains in charge.

The boss has been under pressure with talk of Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri being drafted in as a replacement, but as yet nothing is certain and the 48-year-old seems to have no desire to resign and essentially dared the Chelsea board to sack him after delivering the FA Cup.