Antonio Conte played down Jose Mourinho’s chase of “revenge” after Manchester United’s two losses at Stamford Bridge last season.
The Portuguese cut a frustrated figure throughout both matches at the bridge, but United did beat Chelsea 2-0 at Old Trafford in the return league game in April.
“Don’t forget that they won 2-0 in the second game at home,” Conte said ahead of Sunday’s meeting between the two clubs.
“Every coach, every player, every team wants to win. Not for revenge, but because you need to win.”
Conte may “need to win” more than his opposition coach. The Blues will try to bounce back from Tuesday’s 3-0 Champions League loss to Roma against United.
“This is my task: to try to understand why we lost, and then to find the right solution to try and improve, to avoid other situations like this,” Conte said. “The most important thing is that it is an isolated case.”
Those recent results have put pressure on Conte, with Chelsea already looking unlikely to provide a serious defence of the title they won last season.
“My disappointment was that we lost confidence early,” Conte said. “We could have 50 minutes to come back in this game. Instead, in the second half, we played badly. It was for this reason, my disappointment.”
N’Golo Kante could return following a six-game absence with a hamstring injury, but Victor Moses remains out.
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