Antonio Conte admits Chelsea are out of title race after defeat at West Ham

Saturday's surprise loss was Chelsea's fourth of the season, having previously lost to Burnley, Manchester City and Crystal Palace

Antonio Conte reacts to the 1-0 defeat for Chelsea by West Ham (Getty)

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has insisted that his side are out of the title race after succumbing to defeat at West Ham in what was their fourth loss of the season.

Marko Arnautovic’s sixth-minute strike proved to be the difference as Conte’s men struggled to break down a well-disciplined and resilient West Ham side.

After Saturday’s unexpected defeat, Chelsea are now at risk of falling 14 points behind league leaders Manchester City who play rivals United on Sunday - a lead Conte believes to be unassailable.

"To talk about the title race after a defeat I think is a bit strange,” Conte said in his post-match press conference.

“Especially as this is the fourth defeat this season in 16 games. When you have this task it is impossible to think that you are in the title race. It is impossible.

“My experience is this, if you want to stay in the race for the title, in the first part of the season you can lose once, twice.

“You lose against Crystal Palace at the bottom and now to lose again against West Ham who at this moment are in a bad position in the table, you can’t lose points in these games.

“It means you are not in the title race. You have to change, to do our best in this season.”

Conte attributed Chelsea’s loss to tiredness and a lack of creativity from his players, as well as profligacy in front of goal.

Alvaro Morata notably spurned a prime goal-scoring opportunity with eights of normal time left while Chelsea as a whole registered 19 unconverted shots on goal.

“We created the chances but didn’t take them,” Conte added. “Now we are talking about the defeat.

“Today many players were tired. It is normal when you play in a few days. We started our pre-season with the same players, a lot are playing almost always, and for sure you have to pay something for this.

"Today our ideas were not so clear and I think above all in the last pass, the final pass we made a lot of mistakes. We created chances to score but we didn’t take them. When you shoot for 19 times in a game it means you attack, but we can do better."