Antonio Conte Comments on Premier League Title Race After Tottenham Beat Chelsea

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte said there are six teams that could win the Premier League title following the Blues' 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane on Wednesday.

Conte's men remain top of the pile—five points clear of second-placed Liverpool—but Wednesday's loss ended their run of 13 league wins in a row, and the Italian manager said that Spurs are among five other clubs that will challenge Chelsea, per the club's website:

"

Today we lost against a good team, a really strong team and don’t forget Tottenham fought last season for the title. Mauricio Pochettino has worked with his team for many years and they are improving, and they are one of the six teams that can fight to the end to win the title, or a place in the Champions League.

Now we have to restart, to continue to work and this defeat is totally different if you compare with our defeats in September, because at that moment we were not a team. Tonight we showed we are a strong team and this is important. 

"

Spurs' victory, courtesy of two Dele Alli headers, moved them up into third, seven points behind Chelsea. 

They are tied on points with Manchester City in fourth, Arsenal are one further back in fifth and Manchester United are 10 points behind Chelsea in sixth.

The form of the Premier League's top six this season has been fairly remarkable, with United unable to move themselves up the standings in recent weeks despite winning their last six games on the bounce.

Seventh-placed Everton are nine points behind the Red Devils in the league table and seem already to be playing to be the best of the rest, per the Financial Times' John Burn-Murdoch:

Chelsea's defeat to Spurs has shown that they are fallible, but they remain heavy favourites to win the league.

Should any of their rivals go on a similar winning run in the second half of the season, though, that could change.

Chelsea (currently on 49 points)	Liverpool (44)	Tottenham Hotspur (42)	Manchester City (42)	Arsenal (41)	Manchester United (39)
Leicester City (a)	Manchester United (a)	West Bromwich Albion (h)	Everton (a)	Swansea City (a)	Liverpool (h)
Hull City (h)	Swansea City (h)	Manchester City (a)	Tottenham Hotspur (h)	Burnley (h)	Stoke City (a)
Liverpool (a)	Chelsea (h)	Sunderland (a)	West Ham United (a)	Watford (h)	Hull City (h)
Arsenal (h)	Hull City (a)	Middlesbrough (h)	Swansea City (h)	Chelsea (a)	Leicester City (a)
Burnley (a)	Tottenham Hotspur (a)	Liverpool (a)	Bournemouth (a)	Hull City (h)	Watford (h)

The Blues play at champions Leicester City in their next Premier League clash on Jan. 14, and Conte will want to see his side return to winning ways.

The Foxes have endured a largely torrid 2016-17 campaign, but they beat Manchester City 4-2 at home in December so will pose a threat to Chelsea if they can refind that form.

With so few points being dropped at the moment by any of the title challengers, even a draw against Leicester could threaten Chelsea's title credentials further and give the likes of Liverpool, Spurs, City, Arsenal and United renewed hope of chasing them down.