Antonio Conte hit back at Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho over his comments after the final whistle regarding his celebration, claiming that he was well within his limits to try and pep up the Stamford Bridge crowd.
Jose Mourinho hit out at Antonio Conte after Manchester United’s 4-0 drubbing at Chelsea claiming that the Italian’s goal celebrations were humiliating. Conte appeared to be cheering the crowd and urging them to get behind the players after they scored their 4th goal, an act that apparently left his Portuguese counterpart dismayed.
While Mourinho refused to come out regarding what he spoke to the former Juventus boss, Conte came clean and established that he was well within his rights to do what he did. Speaking to Sky Italia after the game the Blues’ boss said,”I was a football player, so I know how to behave on the pitch. There were United fans who kept singing, while ours were in silence after a great performance from my team. I wanted to call the crowd to applaud the players, which seems normal enough to me.”
He also further established that he had no intention of demeaning anybody, stating that,“I have great respect for everyone. Nothing happened with Jose, especially as my behaviour seemed normal. I didn’t make fun of anyone, as I always demand respect.”
The Italian, however, quickly shifted the topic to Chelsea’s remarkable performance on the night as they effected a memorable 4-0 demolition of rivals United, who were led by former Blues’ manager Mourinho. He was quoted as saying,”Today, I think it is important to talk about the game and I say my players deserved this type of performance. We scored the early goal but we continued to play good football, intensity and possession create many chances. “
Conte was understandably happy that his side came out trumps in a big clash and provided due credit to the players for executing his plans well. He said,”We didn’t concede which was important. It was a type of win that increases the confidence. We wanted to show our ambition and give the satisfaction to our fans and show last season was very bad.”
After some poor performances against Liverpool and Arsenal, Conte noticeably got his formation spot-on this time around, and his ploy to attack United early worked wonders and did well to catch them off-guard.
Even though the first goal was gifted to them due to some fortuitously poor defending from United, the momentum of the game swung heavily in Chelsea’s favour and it never quite looked like it would change. The Blues are now one point off the top of the table and will look to continue their good run of performances in the upcoming weeks.
