Antonio Conte warns Chelsea squad against repeat of 'Mourinho season'

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has aimed a dig at his Manchester United counterpart Jose Mourinho, saying the Blues cannot afford to slack off after winning the league title.

Conte said Chelsea must avoid a "Mourinho season", alluding to when the Portuguese manager got sacked at Stamford Bridge in 2015 months after leading the club to the title.

Conte guided Chelsea to the Premier League title in his first season in English football, winning 30 games which included a club-record 13 consecutive victories. He also led the club to the FA Cup final, where his team lost out to Arsenal.

"We know the next season will be tough," the former Italy boss was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail. 'We want to avoid what happened in the previous season for Chelsea, two years ago, when the team finished in 10th place in the Premier League.

"We want to try to avoid this and I want to try to avoid what happened two seasons ago.

"Two coaches have been sacked from Chelsea and Leicester after winning the league and I want to avoid this and the players want to avoid the bad season they had with Mourinho.

"We are working very well and we hope to find the best solution in the future. We have a lot of young players and if necessary we will have to try to put these players."

Claudio Ranieri was sacked as Leicester manager less than a year after leading the Foxes to a historic league title in 2015/16.

Conte was speaking after Chelsea lost 2-1 to Inter Milan in a pre-season friendly in Singapore. New centre-back signing Antonio Rudiger made his first appearance for the Blues against Inter, while club record signing Alvaro Morata started on the left wing with Michy Batshuayi playing as a lone striker.

"[Morata's] working well. He has to improve his condition and get quickly into our idea of football," Conte said.

"He's only been with us for five days and he tried to do his best what we asked him to do."