Football – EPL | Conte’s future as Chelsea manager doubtful after Watford crushes ‘The Blues’ 4-1

Antonio Conte’s future as Chelsea manager was cast into further doubt when the struggling English Premier League champion was thrashed by Watford 4-1 yesterday [Macau time].

The west London club, which lost 3-0 at home to Bournemouth last week, was poor again as Tiemoue Bakayoko was sent off inside half an hour for a second yellow card for a second woeful tackle.

Chelsea has lost three of its last four games in all competitions, and sits fourth in the league, a point above Tottenham.

“Our performance was very bad from the start,” Conte said. “Maybe I made a mistake in the starting XI. My choices were very poor because our start was very poor.”

Conte again deployed Eden Hazard as Chelsea’s main attacking option with new signing Olivier Giroud on the bench.

Ahead of the game, Conte called on Chelsea’s hierarchy to “prepare a statement … to say they trust me in my work,” but it was another dismal evening for the titleholder, which is 19 points adrift of leader Manchester City.

It was the perfect home debut for new Watford manager Javi Gracia as the team climbed to 11th place.

The challenge became harder for Conte and his players when Bakayoko was dismissed.

It went from bad to worse for Chelsea Watford received a penalty when Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois burst from his line to close down the onrushing Gerard Deulofeu, the new arrival on loan from Barcelona who fell over too easily.

Troy Deeney, whose only previous league goals this season were penalties against Arsenal and Manchester United, stuck home the resulting spot kick to give Watford a deserved halftime lead.

Chelsea’s equalizer was as brilliant as it was unexpected, Hazard dancing past Etienne Capoue before finishing perfectly past Watford goalkeeper Orestis Karnezis from 25 yards.

But Watford was back in front two minutes later as Daryl Janmaat collected the ball on the right before jinking into the box, exchanging passes with Roberto Pereyra and keeping his cool to finish past Courtois.

With Chelsea committing players forward, Deulofeu capitalized to lead a counterattack which he started and finished with a well-taken 88th-minute strike.

Pereyra compounded Chelsea’s misery with a fourth in stoppage time as Watford won in the league for the first time since Dec. 26.

English Premier League mulls winter break to emulate Europe

The English Premier League could emulate other European competitions by introducing a winter break. The Premier League says it has been in talks for several months about finding a gap in the soccer calendar with the Football Association and English Football League, which organizes the three divisions below the top-flight. The Premier League says it’s been looking at the “challenges of the increasingly congested English football calendar, and ways in which we can work together to ease fixture congestion while also giving players a mid-season break.” January would be the most likely time for a break, given the significance of the fixtures around Christmas.