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Chelsea's performance against Manchester United showed they are still behind Antonio Conte, says Gary Neville

Alvaro Morata scored the only goal of the game on Sunday

Jack Austin
Monday 06 November 2017 12:24 GMT
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Antonio Conte celebrates Chelsea's 1-0 victory over Manchester United with Cesar Azpilicueta
Antonio Conte celebrates Chelsea's 1-0 victory over Manchester United with Cesar Azpilicueta

Gary Neville believes Chelsea’s performance against Manchester United is a clear message to Roman Abramovich that the players are fully behind the manager and want him to stay.

Conte made the huge call to drop David Luiz from the entire matchday squad in favour of Andreas Christiansen, a decision which ultimately paid off with the Blues keeping a clean sheet in the 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge.

There were reports that after recent form, including the 3-0 dismantling in Rome last week, that Conte was coming under pressure from above but Neville believes his players made the statement that they back their manager on Sunday.

“When players are against the manager, you can see it but against Tottenham and today against Man United, they've responded,” he said on the Gary Neville Podcast. “They've responded with a performance that tells you they're still with the manager, that the dressing-room is still responding to what's going on.”

“(Leaving out Luiz) could have easily backfired - they're big calls for managers - but I think he's [Conte] won that one today.

“He'll have known that decision - Luiz is a big signing, a big character - would have brought pressure so he deserves big credit. [Andreas] Christiansen came in and did very well.

“There were big question marks ahead of their game against Tottenham at Wembley - the vultures were circling around Antonio Conte - and more rumours today about Conte and David Luiz...this club can create madness out of nothing!”

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