Conte losing sleep after Chelsea’s loss to Arsenal

Joe Williams

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte admits he may not sleep for two nights after their 3-0 loss to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.

First-half goals from Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil condemned the Blues to their second league defeat on the bounce after losing to Liverpool the previous weekend.

Chelsea find themselves eight points behind leaders Manchester City, with their last victory in the league coming almost a month ago.

And Conte revealed he is struggling to sleep as he reflects on his side’s poor performance: “I don’t sleep, sure. I don’t sleep. After this game, this defeat, it’s normal for me not to sleep. Not only one night, but for two nights. When I don’t sleep, I reflect. And it’s important to reflect.

“When you have a bad performance – we have a bad performance together, me first, my staff second, and then the players.”

Chelsea, who have now conceded seven goals in their last three Premier League matches, defended poorly against Arsenal but the Italian coach refused to blame any individual area of his team for the loss.

“It is important to take this experience as an opportunity to understand we want to come back very quickly. To fight for something important in England, it is important to improve,” Conte added.

“It is important to show during the game how to be a great team, not only on paper.

“I don’t want to talk about defenders, midfielders or strikers. Because I think we lose and we win as a team.

“We must continue to think in the same way, always. We understood – me first then the players – that this league is very tough.

“We must improve a lot of if we want to stay up and not in the middle of the table.”