Chelsea rubbish reports suggesting Antonio Conte will be sacked

Chelsea have denied reports suggesting Antonio Conte is set to be sacked by the Premier League club after an indifferent start to the season. The Blues currently lie seventh in the table, five points behind leaders Manchester City.

Conte was brought in amid much fanfare and hopes that Chelsea would be able to put their disastrous last season behind them and return to competing for the Premier League title.

However, after winning the first three matches, Chelsea suffered a dip in form, where they lost to Liverpool and Arsenal. While those defeats came against strong opposition, it was the manner of the losses that caused those worry lines to pop up, with the Blues defence looking shoddy and the forwardline not contributing much.

Those performances had the look of the Chelsea team that struggled so much last season, which led to Jose Mourinho being sacked by Roman Abramovich.

Reports in the UK on Thursday evening suggested the Chelsea hierarchy had called an emergency meeting to discuss the way forward and Conte's future with some suggesting the Italian could be sacked.

However, according to Sky Sports, Chelsea have told them that Conte's job is not under threat and there is no chance of the Italian leaving anytime soon. The report also says no such emergency meeting took place.

Chelsea play Leicester City in the first game of the Premier League weekend on Saturday and Eden Hazard believes Conte is the man to lead the Blues back to the top of the perch.

"He is good," Hazard was quoted as saying by the Daily Mirror. "We started well with three wins, then we suffered two defeats after the international break and then we won again. He has tried to bring confidence to the players.

"We are fit because we ran a lot in pre-season. You need to do this to stay at the top. We want to improve with this manager."

Conte has shown what he can do, given time, with the Juventus and Italy teams and it would seem extremely premature for Chelsea to let go of their manager. However, stranger things have happened under Abramovich, so Conte will know the importance of getting all three points against the champions Leicester on Saturday.