Saturday 3 March 2018 11:01, UK
Antonio Conte fears Chelsea could be on the receiving end of a big defeat at Manchester City on Sunday if they do not get their tactics right.
Chelsea are 22 points behind Pep Guardiola's champions-elect and are bidding to avoid a third-straight Premier League away loss for the first time in five years when they visit the Etihad Stadium live on Sky Sports.
"When you play this type of game, when you play against this team who have showed to be very strong, you must have a plan in your mind to stop them with a tactical plan, otherwise you risk to lose in a bad way," Chelsea's head coach said.
Conte earlier this season insisted Chelsea would focus on themselves and their own approach.
Targeting City would be a deviation from that, but balance is his main objective.
He added: "The most important things in every game are to have a tactical plan defensively and offensively.
"In my mind, if you want to win, you must have a great balance in every moment of the game."
Guardiola praised Conte on Friday saying: "Tactically he is a master, he did it amazingly with the national team with Italy and when he went to Turin. I think Conte is going to leave something to English football. I'm sure of that."
Conte, on the other hand, described City as "unstoppable", but the Italian has tried to find a chink in their armour this week.
"It's very difficult but, at the same time, we have to try and find if there are weaknesses in this team and try to work on these weaknesses," Conte added.
"For sure, it's not simple, not simple in this moment to find a weakness in this team. But we have to try and find the best way to play this game against them."
