Antonio Conte admits Chelsea's Champions League hopes are fading

Vaishali Bhardwaj2 April 2018

Antonio Conte has urged his Chelsea players to fight until the end of the season to try and secure a Champions League spot, but admits such a task will not be easy following their loss to Tottenham.

The Blues surrendered a one-goal lead against their London rivals at Stamford Bridge - a game between two top-four rivals - to lose Sunday's Premier League clash 3-1.

The result leaves Chelsea trailing fourth-placed Spurs by eight points with six games left to play, and Conte admitted afterwards that may be too big a gap to close down between now and the end of the campaign.

Speaking to reporters at Stamford Bridge, Conte said when asked whether a top-four place is still up for grabs for Chelsea: "I don't know, I don't know.

In Pictures | Chelsea vs Tottenham | 01/04/2018

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"On the one hand, we must be realistic and understand the teams that stay ahead of us are going very fast, at great speed. Today we had a great chance to close the gap with Tottenham and we lost this chance.

"On the other hand, we have to know that, until the end, we have to try and do our best. To try in these seven games to do everything and try to take a place in the Champions League. But it won't be easy. We know this."

Conte has complained regularly this season about his lack of squad depth and, indeed, the quality in his ranks.

AFP/Getty Images

And when asked whether the loss to Tottenham shows he has been right about his concerns this term, the Italian chose to avoid answering the question - only saying Chelsea "deserve" to be in fifth place in the league standings.

"I think that now is not the right moment to say. I said this before," he said.

"Now is the moment to try and continue to work with great professionalism. We are doing this. We are doing this and we have to try until the end to do our best. But I think that, if we are in this position, we deserve to be in this position."

Chelsea were crowned Premier League champions just under a year ago, but can now only hope to win the FA Cup trophy this season.

Their fall from their pedestal bares remarkable similarity to two years ago when Chelsea, then champions under Jose Mourinho, suffered their worst start to a campaign and went on to end in 10th place.

And when asked why Chelsea have failed to defend their crown in recent years, Conte replied: "It's difficult... I don't know.

"I think I have my idea, my opinion, but I don't want to tell you in this situation. I'm very tired for one season to repeat always the same things.

"I have my opinion and I'll keep that in my mind. I don't want to create problems."

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