EPL: Mourinho defends Conte’s tactics in Chelsea’s 1-0 loss to Man City

Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has said it is unfair to criticize Chelsea’s Antonio Conte over the Blues’ performance in their 1-0 defeat to Manchester City on Sunday.

Chelsea, who are currently Premier League champions, performed woefully at the Etihad Stadium as Bernardo Silva’s second-half goal secured victory for Pep Guardiola’s side.

The Italian has also been criticised for opting to play Eden Hazard as Chelsea’s false striker, a decision which the Belgian was clearly unhappy with.

But Mourinho believes the negativity directed towards Chelsea and Conte has been ‘unfair.’ “Honestly, I know what you are writing as a consequence of yesterday.

“But Chelsea is a fantastic team and, I know it looks a bit strange because you know we had problems in the past, but it’s quite ridiculous that I have to say how unfair it is to speak the way people are speaking about the English champion.

“They are still the English champion. Chelsea was strong against us. They started very strong and created difficulty in that initial part of the game.

“And tonight [Monday] I think Roy [Hodgson] was strong. We were expecting [Jairo] Riedewald in defensive midfield and [Alexander] Sorloth out left, but he came with a 4-4-2, two aggressive strikers together, strong in the air then dropping back to defend.

“Roy was very good. I don’t even want to blame my players and say the start was not good. ‘The start was not good because they [Palace] were good and matches like this [going behind early], it’s only possible if the two teams are good.”

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