Conte thrives under pressure

Conte took Chelsea to the Premier League title during his first season in charge, but this season form has dropped and the gap to Manchester City is now 19 points. However, Tuesday night's draw against Barcelona should give him cause to hope as Chelsea went 1-0 up and were unlucky to concede against the Catalan giants. 

"It's partly to do with the history of Chelsea, it's unavoidable," he said, speaking to 'Mediaset Premium', regarding the constant speculation about his job. 

"In the past 14 years there have been 10 changes of manager. Clearly when there is - and I say this in quotation marks - that kind of custom then the press play on it a lot, especially when results don't materialise.

"This year there's been a lot of pressure. After the first defeat to Burnley there were people talking about the sack and about a change on the Chelsea bench but that's because of the history here.

"Chelsea are talked about a lot by the press but for me that's absolutely not a problem. I just hope that pressure doesn't affect the players, whereas I like pressure."

Despite being linked to the Italian national team, which is still without a permanent manager, Conte has insisted he is committed to Chelsea for the duration of his contract.