Fiery West Ham United boss Slaven Bilic has publicly defended the recent actions of Antonio Conte, ahead of the Hammers hosting Chelsea in Wednesday's EFL clash.
The Italian manager celebrated wildly as the Blues thrashed Manchester United 4-0 at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, drawing criticism from Jose Mourinho, but Bilic has stuck by the Chelsea boss.
TheMirrorreported him saying, "I know what Jose thought of that.I don't think that's the reason Conte did it, to humiliate United, he just wanted the crowd to praise the team because they were winning and for what they had done in the game.
"From my point of view I don't think he wanted to humiliate Manchester United. I don't think so.You have different people, when you are winning your methods are good. On the touchline many managers just sit and watch the game, others are like they are playing.
Slaven Bilic defends Antonio Conte over touchline antics ahead of West Ham's clash with Chelsea https://t.co/SP4OTb8saH pic.twitter.com/kmvqUcEiEu
"You have to be yourself. During that game I saw nothing wrong from Conte or nothing he hasn't done since he started. Typical Conte, aggressive in a good way."
The Croatian went on to discuss the match at hand, stressing the importance of the home crowd at the London Stadium, "Just to get behind us because we are feeling them in every game, and of course we want them to be like that, our 12th player.
Hopefully all the problems have gone. I'm getting fed up with answering those questions week in week out, all we can do is try to play good football and win games. That also helps the atmosphere. It's all we can do.
"We got seven points from three games, a couple of wins, couple of clean sheets and of course the confidence is back now and we have to build on that and approach every game like it's our last one, totally focused."