CHELSEA BOSS Antonio Conte will not contest his sending-off against Swansea City – and will try to implement a new approach to raising issues with match officials.
The fiery Italian was dismissed from the dugout by referee Neil Swarbrick on Wednesday after remonstrating vociferously with fourth official Lee Mason over what he perceived to be time-wasting by the Welsh club.
Conte apologised in the immediate aftermath of the 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge – secured by an Antonio Rudiger header – but was nevertheless hit by a misconduct charge by the Football Association a day later.
The former Juventus and Italy boss has accepted the charge and the accompanying fine, and is intending to alter his approach towards officials in the future.
He told reporters ahead of Saturday’s home game with Newcastle United: “I think it’s right to accept and to pay the fine.
“As I said after the game, if the referee took this decision I have to respect it. I want to respect his decision and pay the fine.
“They were wasting time and I think the referee has to protect the team that wants to win and play football.
“I was angry because, despite it happening twice, I said to the fourth official ‘look, they are wasting time’.
“In the future I will tell my players on the pitch to try to tell the referee. I’ll try to avoid suggesting things to the fourth official.”
Conte confirmed David Luiz and Charly Musonda will miss the weekend clash through injury with further changes expected against slumping opposition.
He added: “In this busy period it’s normal to have rotation and to give rest to all the players.
“When you have to play in four competitions, rotation is normal. It’s right for every player to accept my decision.
“I trust my players, I believe in them and I want to give them the chance to show me they deserve to play.”
Chelsea go into matchday 15 11 points behind runaway leaders Manchester City and Conte accepted it would be hard to catch Pep Guardiola’s men, who have specialised recently in late wins.
“It’s right to believe that we can catch them up,” he said.
“It’s right for the mentality, it’s right that in every game to show the will to fight. [But] at the same time, in this moment it’s very difficult [to catch them] for many reasons. They are getting good results at the end of the game many times, this shows great will from Manchester City to push until the end and win the game.
“We have to look at ourselves and go game by game. We have to see which teams stay above us and then to try to catch them.”
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Can’t even comment… It was. Just so poor…
Poor yea , conditions didn’t help ! Your clubmate had a good game in the centre
Thought him everything he knows skippy… Didn’t teach him everything I know tho :-)
Good win on the road for Clare today.It was a difficult one without a number of key players, conditions and with wexford beaten by so much last wk end they were always going to be difficult to beat in wexford.
Whatever about conditions, first touch very poor both sides. Only positive for clare is they have players to come back.
So do Wexford…
But they don’t have a hurler of the year to come back along with podge Collins
As a wexford man,beginning to really get fed up when we can’t beat a top level team.apart from Clare two years ago,Waterford Limerick cork have all come to wexford park in a do or die match and we are coming out on the wrong side of them
How come wexford can’t seem to beat a so called top level team?apart from Clare in 2014,waterford cork and limerick have all travelled to wexford park and came out on top in so called do or die matches.
Maybe because they’re not good enough to do so eh?.. Just a thought….
How come wexford are struggling to beat any sort of top level team.we beat Clare in 2014 when they were all ireland champions but since then waterford limerick and cork have all travelled to their own backyard in so called do or die matches and have failed every time.
Wexford just haven’t got lads up to the standard. Tis alright winning at under 21 Leinster and getting to the All Ireland final, it takes three to four years to blossom into senior, and the Limerick team of the early 2000′s shows that may not even happen either.