Chelsea top brass losing faith in Antonio Conte with champions a massive FOURTEEN points off the title pace
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Antonio Conte is under renewed pressure at Chelsea.
The beleaguered Italian is losing the faith of the Stamford Bridge board with the defending champions now 14 points behind leaders Manchester City ahead of the halfway stage.
Despite a glamour tie against Barcelona in the knockout stages of the Champions League to look forward to in February after Monday's draw, there is concern that boss Conte is no longer getting the best out of his restructured squad.
Since winning the title last season, he has continually trained his fire on the board, demanding more investment.
The Blues’ hierarchy, however, believe he too has questions to answer.
(Image: Getty)
(Image: Reuters)
Conte, who will have a year left on his contract in the summer after rerfusing a lucrative extension, is understood still to be keen on a return to Italy and the club are now unlikely to stand in his way.
Paris Saint-Germain have also made him their No1 target to replace Unai Emery who is under mounting pressure at PSG.
At the start of the season, there was a feeling at the Bridge that there was enough in the squad to compete with City’s resurgence under Pep Guardiola.
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But the Blues were humbled at home to City at the end of September and have since been left trailing in their wake.
They have dropped 16 points in the Premier League already, compared to 21 during the whole of last season.
Defeats to Burnley, Palace and most recently West Ham have left Conte’s men facing a scrap to finish in the top four.
While they are into the knockout phase of the Champions League, Chelsea stumbled through the group stages at times.
They blew a 2-0 lead at home to Roma, lost 3-0 away to the Italians and only managed to draw at home to Atletico Madrid, in a gane watched by Roman Abramovich.
Saturday’s shock defeat at West Ham came with Brazilian winger Willian unhappy Conte is not playing him more regularly.
The manager’s relationship with David Luiz remains fragile after the centre-back was axed for questioning his tactics in a team-meeting last month.
(Image: Action Images via Reuters)
And Conte’s handling of the Diego Costa situation - axing the striker before telling the board - has not been forgotten.
Nor have the 48-year-old’s public criticisms of the club’s transfer policy.
The departure of technical director Michael Emanalo has left Conte without much of the support he enjoyed at boardroom level.
He now heads to Huddersfield on Tuesday night, well aware that defeat will plunge him under further pressure.