Patience and time running out for Antonio Conte at Chelsea | Dominic Fifield

The humiliating home loss to Bournemouth provided another indication that the head coach, who has spent weeks sniping at the club’s hierarchy, will soon be gone

The aftermath of a defeat tends to see Antonio Conte drop his guard. The emotions are too raw and the Italian, consumed by that toxic blend of disappointment and frustration, lashes out and airs his troubles. Yet, as he lurched from an insistence he has been overachieving to preaching realism over Chelsea’s aspirations in the wake of a humiliating home loss to Bournemouth, it was hard not to conclude that this is a head coach pushing his relationship with his employers to breaking point.

Those up in the directors’ seats or across in Roman Abramovich’s box in the West Stand do not want to hear that the coaching staff are “exploiting this squad at the maximum level” when opponents who had started the evening two points above the relegation zone have just carved them apart at will. Or, indeed, that Conte had seen it all coming, with the buildup to the game deemed a disaster after he had built his frontline around Michy Batshuayi despite the likelihood of the Belgian departing on loan. That last comment had been delivered before kick-off but smacked of defeatism. Remind the players enough times they are underprepared, or fatigued, and they will believe it.

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