Antonio Conte working through the night in bid to get Chelsea back on track

Antonio Conte has revealed he is working so hard to rescue Chelsea’s season that he struggles to sleep and instead spends long hours watching videos of matches alone in the dead of night.

The Chelsea head coach is under increasing pressure amid reports that relationships are strained behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge following his vocal frustration at the club’s lack of progress in the transfer market, which has left him with a thin squad.

That squad, beaten by Arsenal in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup in midweek, will be put to the test again in the FA Cup on Sunday when Chelsea face Newcastle without the injured Alvaro Morata, Willian and Thibaut Courtois – and with a lack of high-quality replacements.

“To play every few days right now is not simple for us,” said Conte, who played without a recognised striker at the Emirates in midweek. “We have to hope to have all players available, otherwise we have to try to invent something before the game or during the game.

“But people who know me very well know that I don’t stop. I try every day, through hard work, to overcome difficulties. It’s not for all. I’m a specialist in this kind of situation.”

Such is Conte’s commitment to the role that he admits that getting eight hours sleep is virtually out of the question.

“Everyone knows that I live this job with great passion and great love,” he said. “For this reason it happens that I don’t sleep, especially when you have to face difficult situations and you want to try to do the best for the team, the players, the fans, the club.

“So, when I don’t sleep I continue to work with a computer, all night. I don’t want to create a problem for my wife, so I go in another room, the living room, and sometimes I start to work, watch a game or find a new solution. To watch a game many times is important so you can understand the positives and negatives and improve your team, especially when you lose. It’s very important to find the reason you lost.”

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Whether that hard work is enough to overcome speculation that Conte’s future at Stamford Bridge is in the balance remains to be seen; but the Italian insists it is one of the few problems which isn’t keeping him awake.

“I can tell you that I continue to work very hard for this club, for the players, for our fans,” Conte said. “I saw a bit of the history of this club in the past and it was the same also for the other coaches. I don’t see difference between me and the other coaches that managed this situation.

“My only worry is to work, to work very hard. For sure if you look at the stats you can see in 14 years that 10 managers were sacked in this club. But at the same time when you are sure about your work, when you are sure you are doing everything to improve this club, then I‘m very, very relaxed, very calm. I don’t have these type of worries.”

What does concern the Chelsea head coach, however, is how to fill the void left by injured players when he names a team to face Newcastle United, and it could see recent signing Ross Barkley handed a full debut even though the former Everton midfielder is not yet match fit.

Conte said: “After a bad injury you need a bit of time to be fit 100 per cent. But if we want to accelerate this process he has to play, not only in the training sessions - and especially in this moment after Willian and Morata injuries. We don’t have other options.”