Antonio Conte cites Chelsea's lack consistency after Roma defeat, wants reaction against Manchester United

Antonio Conte claims Chelsea's struggle to have the stability and consistency has cost them points in the Premier League and the Champions League. The manager has urged the Blues to bounce back when they face Manchester United at Stamford Bridge on 5 November.

The west London club won their opening two group stage matches in the European competition this season. The English side settled for a 3-3 draw against AS Roma at home earlier in October and suffered a 3-0 defeat against the Serie A outfit in Italy on Tuesday.

Stephan El Shaarawy's brace in the first half followed by Diego Perotti's second-half goal saw Roma seal three crucial points. Chelsea are made to wait to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League following their poor display in Rome.

Chelsea have managed only three wins in the last seven matches played in all competitions. The former Juventus manager has stressed that his side needs to "dig deep" in order to avoid a similar performance they had against Roma.

"My task is to find the best solution to try to avoid this type of game. We have to work together; we need to have the will to dig deep," Conte was quoted as saying by Chelsea's official website.

"If we think because our name is Chelsea the opponent is fearful, this is not the right way. We must have a great desire to be the protagonist in every game."

"We must find the hunger we showed all of last season, and sometimes this season. But this season has been up and down. If you are a great team, you must have stability and consistency. At this moment, we are struggling to have this type of balance."

"To be competitive you need consistency, consistency which we have been lacking so far because we have faced a number of problems which have to be strong enough to overcome."

Chelsea will welcome Jose Mourinho's side for a league tie before the last international break of this calendar year. Conte wants the Premier League winners to change things around when they face United at Stamford Bridge.

"For sure we have to try to have the strength to understand and to use this loss in the right way [against United]. As I have said before, in this season we have to dig very deep if we want to be competitive and fight for something important. If we are not ready to dig deep, we can have this type of game," he said.

"We have to know this. This season will be difficult if we don't quickly understand the right way to go."