Unfortunately there has been a crazy rumour circulating over the past few days – that Chelsea were preparing to release their new manager Antonio Conte in the wake of losses in the Premier League to rivals Arsenal and Liverpool. The club has got off to a decent start as they sit only three points out of the top 4 in seventh on 13 points so it has hardly been a disastrous start to the campaign particularly when compared to last year when the side under Jose Mourinho lost 6 of their first 10 league games.

This rumour gathered pace on Thursday when some UK bookmakers suspended betting on who Conte’s replacement would be. As ESPNFC reported, a club source commented on the rumours calling them “utter nonsense” as the Italian coach is still settling into his role at the club after just 3 months in charge.

One can only think that the rumours emerged after Roman Abramovich was seen attending the Cobham training ground for a number of lunches in recent times. The purpose of these lunches was to offer support to the new manager rather than being critical however.

Clearly the former Italian national team boss is a class act and the club and owner seem to recognise this and have no intention of removing him from his post especially as Conte has yet to settle on his best team or put his stamp on the way they play. We expect the super enthusiastic manager to be left to get on with his job as ultimately he will surely do well as he one of the best in the business.