Sunday 4 March 2018 19:22, UK
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has defended his tactics against a "fantastic" Manchester City team after falling to a 1-0 defeat to the league leaders.
Manchester City went 18 points clear at the top of the Premier League table thanks to Bernardo Silva's strike 34 seconds into the second half.
Chelsea failed to register a single shot on target and were on the back foot for the majority of Sunday's game, but Conte has defended his decision to set his team out defensively.
"If you give City space behind us the game can finish not 1-0," Conte told Sky Sports' Geoff Shreeves after the game.
"It's not good enough but this is the truth, I don't think this is because of the tactics. But the game was this and we tried to do our best.
"It's not simple to play against Man City. They have great intensity of every moment of the game, we tried to do this and defend well but we conceded a goal after 30 seconds of the second half.
"It's very difficult to come back from that but don't forget we were missing N'Golo Kante who is a crucial player for us and our balance."
Chelsea remain five points behind fourth-placed Tottenham, meaning the reigning Premier League champions are in danger of missing out on a Champions League spot.
Despite the defeat, Conte went on to state that he had no regrets over how his team played when speaking in his post-match press conference.
He added: "I think we must have big regret for the defeat against Bournemouth, Watford and Manchester United but I don't think we have regret today. Today we played against a team that is showing to be a strong team.
"Today they showed the difference between them and us at this moment, 25 points is a big gap and we can have regret for the other games but not for this one."
