Antonio Conte branded the Sky Sports pundits Jamie Redknapp and Gary Neville “stupid” after they described Chelsea’s display in their 1-0 defeat by Manchester City as “anti-football” and “embarrassing” respectively.

A Bernardo Silva goal seconds into the second half handed Chelsea a fourth league defeat in their past five matches and stretched City’s lead over Liverpool to 18 points, though Manchester United can cut that to 16 if they beat Crystal Palace on Monday night.

Redknapp also labelled Chelsea’s performance as a “crime against football” while Neville, who was on co-commentary duties at the Etihad Stadium, said the visiting players had performed like “mannequins”.

Informed of the comments, Conte said: “The pundit has to use the head to understand when you speak about tactics. I think you must have knowledge to speak about tactics and not only to speak in a stupid way. You have to accept every criticism but I am not so stupid to play against Manchester City open and to lose 3-0 or 4-0.

“If I remember well, Arsenal played twice against them and then you [media] criticise a lot [Arsène] Wenger because they concede three goals in only 30 minutes.”

Asked to explain the poor run of form, he said: “We must have big regrets for the defeat against Bournemouth and Watford, against Manchester United but I don’t think today because we played against a team that are shown to be a strong team.

“Today they showed the difference between them and us. When you play against City, this kind of team, they are showing fantastic quality but at the same time fantastic mentality. When you match quality and mentality you become unstoppable.”

Pep Guardiola wants City to beat the record Premier League points total of 95, though his prime focus is on securing the title after the win left them needing four more victories. “Yes, of course, but we’re not going to play for the records, we are going to play good, to win the games and after it will be a consequence of that,” he said. “Records are always a consequence of what you have done but if you think about the records you forget what you have to do.”

Guardiola admitted City’s lead was not expected. “No way – who could believe it? Not just the results but the way we play today was another demonstration [of how good we are]. That is when I’m pleased the most but, of course, could I expect after what happened the previous season, with five or six contenders, to have the distance from many teams now – 25 to Chelsea, 33 to Arsenal is a lot – it’s March. They made good results but we were so good.”