Antonio Conte admitted Chelsea had lost “the complete player” after Kevin De Bruyne scored the decisive goal against his former club to return Manchester City to the top of the Premier League.
De Bruyne’s second-half winner left Pep Guardiola acclaiming him among the world’s elite footballers and Conte facing questions about Chelsea’s decision to sell the Belgian during José Mourinho’s second spell at Stamford Bridge. Conte chose his words carefully to make sure they could not be construed as criticism of Mourinho but acknowledged it was Chelsea’s loss. “I don’t know, honestly, what happened in the past,” the Italian manager said. “But for sure we are talking about a top player, the complete player. He’s good – technical, fast, and he works hard for his team. He is the complete player.”
De Bruyne’s goal capped one of the more impressive City performances of the Guardiola era and made it eight straight wins in all competitions. “He is doing a lot of great things,” the City manager said. “Last season he hit the post 12 or 13 times and this season they are going in. He can do absolutely everything. With the ball he can assist short and long. Without the ball, he’s the most humble person, the most shy guy. He says: ‘If I have to run 100km for the team, I will do that, no problem.’ It is not easy to find that [work ethic] with this type of talent.”
City’s 1-0 victory moved them back above Manchester United – 4-0 victors at home to Crystal Palace earlier – at the top of the league on goal difference, with a five-point gap opening up to Spurs in third position. “It’s still only September,” Guardiola said. “We still have United and the Harry Kane team [Spurs]. That [United] is a José Mourinho team. With José, it will be so tough. But it’s important to show we can play like that. We showed in the first minute that we were coming here to win the game and Kevin showed, once again, how good he is.”
Following the goalless draw with Arsenal, Chelsea have now failed to score in back-to-back league games at Stamford Bridge for the first time since November 2012. “We played against a really good team,” Conte said. “We created chances but didn’t take them and in this type of game it’s very important to score first. Great compliments to Manchester City.”