Antonio Conte rejects late bid for Moussa Dembele after securing 'a good point' against Liverpool

He also denied Chelsea had bid £35m for Celtic's Moussa Dembele

Conte was pleased with the point, despite Costa's missed penalty (Getty)

Antonio Conte has dismissed reports of a Chelsea bid for Celtic’s Moussa Dembele as “speculation” and insisted there was no bid, but feels that the league leaders have enhanced their squad despite a lack of purchases, with the return of three loan players in Nathan Ake, Kenedy and Charly Musonda.

When directly asked about whether Chelsea had bid for £35m for the highly-rated Dembele, Conte merely said “no” and described it as “speculation”. He also stressed that there was no danger of any of his players leaving for the Chinese Super League despite their transfer window remaining open until 26 February.

“China is still open, it’s not finished,” the Italian laughed. “No, but I am pleased to continue with my players with this squad. We implemented our squad with three guys, three young players, I repeat, Ake [returning from Bournemouth], Musonda [returning from Real Betis] and Kenedy [returning from Watford] and our market is finished.

“I am pleased because now we have the squad and it’s important to be focused, to be concentrated in the second part of the season, to get back into the Champions League because, for a club like Chelsea, it’s important to get back.”

Conte was speaking after his side’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool, a result he described as a “good point” despite Diego Costa’s 77th-minute penalty miss.

“I am pleased for sure for the performance of my players, because it’s not easy to play against Liverpool in this moment after three defeats, not easy to play in this atmosphere in Anfield.

I was a footballer and know, when you play in this atmosphere it’s very, very difficult. For this reason, I’m very proud of my players for the personality they showed me tonight.

“A good point, for sure.

“For sure, 60, 70 minutes, you think you can win, take three points. I think Diego kicked [the penalty] very well and [Simon] Mignolet made a great save. We had two chances to score the second goal but it didn’t happen. We must be pleased

Now it’s important to recover, because to say we wasted a lot of energy, this game was incredible, very tough, great intensity, a lot of pressure both sides and for this reason a lot of mistakes but I ‘m pleased.

I’m pleased for the performance of my players

“Today, when there are these type of games with high intensity, it’s very difficult to see the mistakes, to try to make the correction but I think that today we played a really good game. It wasn’t easy to play in the same intensity as Liverpool and to have also different chances to win the game. We must be pleased.”