Chelsea boss Antonio Conte denies 'humiliating' Jose Mourinho

JOSE AND MOURINHO

Antonio Conte has denied he tried to humiliate Jose Mourinho by whipping-up the crowd following Chelsea's fourth goal against Manchester United.

Mourinho angrily told Conte in Italian at full-time that he thought Conte's wild gesturing was "humiliating" at 4-0 down.

Italian media claim Mourinho said: "You don't celebrate like that at 4-0. You can do it at 1-0, otherwise it's humiliating for us."

But Conte insists he was simply trying to motivate a flat home crowd at Stamford Bridge that was quieter than the away support despite the scoreline.

"I was a football player, so I know how to behave on the pitch. I have great respect for everyone," Conte said.

"There were United fans who kept singing, while ours were in silence after a great performance from my team. I wanted to call the crowd to applaud the players, which seems normal enough to me.

"Nothing happened with Jose, especially as my behaviour seemed normal. I didn't make fun of anyone, as I always demand respect.

"If you want to cut the emotions, we can stay at home and I will change jobs. I did something absolutely normal. I didn't do anything to humiliate Mourinho."

Pedro, Gary Cahill, Eden Hazard and N'Golo Kante completed Mourinho's heaviest Premier League defeat - and Conte insists the performance was a reflection of his 'hard-work' philosophy.

"I am delighted for the performance because we played very well with good intensity, good positions and we moved the ball very quickly and created many chances to score goals," he added.

"This is the third game we haven't conceded a goal and that is very important. This type of game, against a very strong team like Manchester United, increases our confidence about our work.

 "We are working very hard, I see my players every day with the right commitment and work rate and they deserve this type of win and performance.

"When you work very hard it's important to win because then you trust the work."

Conte was thrilled with the pace with which his side started the game but was quick to resign the performance to the past, setting his sights on Wednesday's EFL Cup clash at West Ham.

"I asked my players to start the game strongly and to show our desire to win the game, not just to our fans but to our opponent," he added.

"We scored after 30 seconds. The most important thing is that we continued to play and to try to score the second goal, it happened and I'm very happy.

"Now we must continue because this is the right way but for me United is in the past.

"We must concentrate on Wednesday when we have another tough game against West Ham and its important to recover and prepare for that game."