Antonio Conte not worried about Chelsea future after another humiliating defeat at Watford

Antonio Conte insists he is not worried about his own future after Chelsea suffered a second consecutive humiliating Premier League defeat to Watford on Monday night (5 February) that only served to increase speculation that he could be facing the sack.

Following on from their shock 3-0 home loss at the hands of Bournemouth last week, Chelsea, who have now won just two of their 10 competitive matches in 2018, played an hour with 10 men at Vicarage Road following the dismissal of the hapless Tiemoue Bakayoko and eventually lost 4-1 despite Eden Hazard netting a stunning equaliser with just eight minutes remaining.

It was a chastening defeat and the first time they have lost consecutive top-flight games by a margin of three or more goals since 1995, according to Opta Sports - against a struggling side that had collected just six points in 12 matches since late November.

It left the defending champions fourth, only slightly ahead of London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.

Despite another desperately poor result, Conte, who recently challenged the Chelsea board to give him public backing amid so much uncertainty, reiterated that he is not thinking about his own position.

"This is not my problem, I repeat," he told Sky Sports. "I try to do my job and try to put everything into my job. If this is enough it's okay, otherwise, they can take the decision."

It was an understandably fractious post-match broadcast interview from Conte, who insisted that he "tried to warn everyone about the difficulty" of Chelsea's path to Champions League qualification, a possible reference to his unhappiness at the club's transfer activity since last summer.

The Italian's admission that he might have "made mistakes with the starting 11" led to an irate exchange during which he clearly took exception to being repeatedly asked for specifics.

"My choice was very poor I think," he said. "What choice? What question? I'm talking about the starting 11 and you continue to ask me...

"Maybe the starting 11 was wrong because our start was very poor and it was very difficult to change something tonight."

Chelsea were without Marcos Alonso, Alvaro Morata, Ross Barkley and Andreas Christensen against Watford, while Pedro had to be helped off the pitch in the second half after sustaining a bad looking injury.

However, Conte dismissed the notion that tiredness and a shortage of energy were key factors behind another emphatic defeat.

"You are talking about Barkley, who did not play for six months. If Barkley is tired then we are in trouble," he said.

"I don't know [about the rest of the team]. I think the players run until the end but in a bad way tonight. We must play with organisation, with a plan."