Chelsea boss Antonio Conte lays into Burnley's Sean Dyche in astonishing rant

Posted Thursday, April 19, 2018 by Express.co.uk

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte lays into Burnley's Sean Dyche in astonishing rant
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has let fly at Sean Dyche

ANTONIO CONTE has taken a remarkable swipe at rival Sean Dyche by claiming the Burnley manager has had it easy this season.

Conte, whose under-performing Chelsea side visit Turf Moor tonight with only four league wins this year under their belts, reckons starting out the season battling against the drop is easier than fighting for the title.

But Conte has plainly not been doing his sums. Regardless of the enormous gulf in their spending power, Burnley have not been lower than 12th in the League since winning 3-2 at Stamford Bridge on August 12, and have spent most of the season in seventh. The Italian can only dream of such consistency.

They may be eight points behind but they have won on their last five outings and go into tonight's game in ominous form while Chelsea must ignore the distraction of Sunday's FA Cup semi-final against Southampton.

Yet Conte was moved to say: "Sean is doing a great job this season – but if you start the season looking to fight to avoid the relegation zone it is more simple.

"It is simpler also if you have a small budget because you can count on a team that in the past has reached the qualification to stay in the league.

"You have to avoid the bottom three places, and then you are with ten other teams. If you have a good base and in the previous season played well, you can count on that base. You have to fight only to avoid that."

Conte, who is set to leave Chelsea at the end of a season spent mostly at loggerheads with his board over transfer policy, is set to miss out on the top four having crashed out of the Champions League at the last 16 stage.

"It is difficult if you have to play to win, because only one team wins," he continued. "If the others don't win, people are the first to speak about a failed season. If you don't win the FA Cup, the League, the Carabao Cup, it is a failure season. So it is more difficult to play for these targets.

"It is more difficult when you have to go into the transfer market to win something."

Asked if he would like to swap jobs with Dyche, who has been a target for clubs like Everton, West Ham and West Brom, Conte said: "I have in my career fought to avoid the relegation zone. I didn't start with Juventus, I started with Arezzo, at the bottom."

Conte will make changes tonight with Sunday's Wembley game in mind. Eden Hazard is set to be rested, with Ross Barkley, who has played only 131 minutes of football since joining from Everton for £15million at the start of the year, expected to figure.

Brazilian wing-back Emerson Palmieri will also start, with first-choice Marcos Alonso expected to be banned for three games after being charged for his tackle on Southampton's Shane Long on Saturday.

Conte's team could narrow the gap to fourth-placed Spurs to five points with four games left, but having fielded a phone call from his wife Elisabetta, he revealed his pessimism.

"If I see the table right now they have eight points more than us. I would rather be in their position," he said.

"We are talking about a really good team. We have to try our best but we know that in front of us is a team that it is difficult to see dropping points."