Antonio Conte has given a strong example from the days of his playing career to prove that Chelsea haven’t indeed won the title just yet.
Of course, the Italian insists that the Blues haven’t come this far to bottle the Premier League title, but should certainly remember there’s still 13 games left to play for this season.
During his playing career, Conte’s Juventus lost the title to Lazio despite being in a strong nine point lead with eight games to go at the top of the Serie A table in the campaign of 1999-2000.
The former Azzurri manager claims that he didn’t sleep for six days due to the shock of not winning the title that year, but also reflects on the 2001-2002 season when Juventus actually came from eight points behind to win the title ahead of Inter Milan.
“We lost the title to Lazio in the last game against Perugia. After this game I had to go to the European Championships with the national team.
I didn’t sleep for six days because it was a shock for me to lose the title. In another situation (2002) I won the title recovering eight points on Inter. We won the last game against Udinese and Inter lost the game against Lazio.”
Chelsea are currently eight points clear at the top of the table and will face Swansea City at home today. Having struggled against the Welsh side recently, winning none (D2, L1) of the last three games against the Swans, Conte’s men will have to be fully awake when the game kicks off at 0300 pm.
Conte’s Juventus days prove that Chelsea don’t have any room for an error with the season slowly entering its final stages.
“That’s why I continue to repeat there are 13 games, there are 39 points.
There is a long time before we can say we won the title. We must be focused, we must go step by step. Now I’m sure to win the title we must do 32 points.
It’s not important now. It is not the right moment. There is a long time – 13 games is an enormous space of time – 39 points…anything can happen.”
– Antonio Conte, Daily Star
