Antonio Conte: 'Chelsea must first catch Manchester United'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 29 November 2017

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte wants his players to show "a winning mentality" as they attempt to keep pace with Manchester United and Manchester City.

Antonio Conte has told his Chelsea players to forget about top spot in the Premier League until they can first catch second-placed Manchester United.

The reigning champions are six points worse off than the Red Devils, who picked up their third top-flight win in succession against Watford on Tuesday night.

League leaders Manchester City have opened up an 11-point gap on Chelsea, meanwhile, having won 12 of their opening 13 games and scored 42 goals in the process.

Ahead of the Blues' home match against strugglers Swansea City on Wednesday night, Conte has urged his players to remain focused on keeping pace with the side directly above them.

"We have to look at ourselves and not the others. Now our target must be to see the team that is before us. In this case, Manchester United," he told reporters.

"Our first target is to catch them up and if we are able to do this and then we can see the team who is staying before us. This must be our mentality and in every game we have to try to win and do our best. This must be the right mentality, winning mentality.

"If you leave Man City out of the table there is United and we are three points behind [before United beat Watford 4-2]. Man City is doing something incredible until now but we have to trust to continue to improve in our work in our team and try to do our best. This is the right way."

Chelsea have won four and drawn one of their last five games - a run that includes a 1-0 victory over Man United on November 5.