Antonio Conte’s Chelsea clinched an important win over Manchester United (Picture: PA Wire)

Manchester United remain ‘one of the best candidates’ to win the Premier League title this season despite being beaten by Chelsea on Sunday.

That is the opinion of Blues boss Antonio Conte, who was delighted the reigning champions were able to clinch a 1-0 win over a ‘very strong United team’.

Summer signing Alvaro Morata’s second-half header clinched the three points for the hosts and allowed Chelsea to make up vital ground on their top four rivals.

The west London outfit are now just one point below Tottenham and United in second, while Manchester City opened up an eight-point gap at the top of the table with an emphatic 3-1 win over Arsenal.

But despite City’s dominance – Pep Guardiola’s side remain unbeaten and have scored an impressive 38 league goals – Conte insists United remain one of the favourites to win the league.

‘I was very happy because we beat a strong team in Man United and don’t forget Man United is one of the best candidates to win the title with Man City,’ the former Italy boss said.

Morata’s second-half header settled the affair at Stamford Bridge (Picture: Reuters)

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Conte was delighted with his side’s performance (Picture: Getty)

‘To have these types of performance and see this spirit for sure I’m pleased for this. It’s great for me, great for the players and the club and great for our fans to breathe this energy, breathe this enthusiasm.’

Morata’s goal took his tally for the season to nine but Conte insisted his star striker could still improve and become more clinical in front of goal.

‘When we talk about Morata… this is the first season that he’s playing regularly. In the previous seasons, he never played regularly,’ Conte said.

‘Now for sure he has to try to work, to improve. Before the injury, he was playing in a fantastic way. Then after injury, he’s form dropped. It wasn’t good enough.

‘But now, to play and to work is improving and today I think he played a really good game against three central defenders who are strong physically.

‘He proved he is strong physically and if I have to find negative, he could score more goals and be more clinical – but step by step.’

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