Tuesday 28 November 2017 15:20, UK
Antonio Conte has described Manchester City's unbeaten run as "extraordinary" and says Chelsea deserve to be behind in the title race.
Chelsea are 11 points behind leaders City in the table with Pep Guardiola's side having only dropped two points in the league.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have lost three times already this season, including a 1-0 defeat at home to City and a shock defeat to Burnley on the opening day.
Conte blamed Chelsea's slow start on a number of high-profile injuries, but admitted City's form has been something special.
"We started the season with a lot of problems," said Conte. "We have the points we deserve. I have spoken before about our problems at the start of the season because we started with a lot of injuries with Pedro, N'Golo [Kante] and [Victor] Moses.
"Manchester City are doing something extraordinary. But the most important thing is to look at ourselves and try to improve from the start of the season. We are becoming more solid and we have to continue this way."
Much has been made of Chelsea's lack of strength in depth but Conte is planning to rotate his squad during the Christmas period.
"I hope to have all my players available," said Conte. "We know our situation and we try to do our best in every moment but I'm very happy to work with our players in easy and difficult situations.
"This period is very busy and it will be very important to make rotations with the players.
"It will be important to give the opportunity to my players and this way we can keep the concentration very high.
"The players that need to rest can do this. If you play every game and you train the probability of an injury is very high."
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Chelsea host Swansea, who will be without Chelsea loanee Tammy Abraham, at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday and Conte hinted that the England striker may be in his future plans.
"To talk about this topic now is very soon," Conte said. "For sure we are talking about young players with good prospects to become Chelsea's players in the future.
"To go on loan was the best decision for him and for the club. He is playing regularly and this is the best way for his development.
"Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] is another young player with a good prospect to become Chelsea's player and to play regularly but now is not the right time to talk about this topic."
