Antonio Conte hailed the relentlessness of his Chelsea players are watching them win their record-equalling 13th Premier League game in a row. Chelsea drew level with Arsenal’s 2001-02 record by beating Stoke City 4-2 at Stamford Bridge, after which Conte praised his players for not taking their feet off the gas despite their brilliant run, and for refusing to be satisfied.

“They showed great character, above all, after 12 wins in a row,” Conte said. “When you win a lot, there is a great danger to be satisfied. To be relaxed and to think that, in the end, we've won a lot in the past, and a draw, if we don't win, is not important.”

Conte was delighted that his players had not shown this attitude and were motivated to keep winning, in pursuit of their historic record. “My players showed me great will, great will to fight, great will to win, great will to take this great achievement for us,” Conte said. “I'm pleased for them and they deserve this. I'm their coach, but they deserved this.”

Chelsea were given a scare by a Stoke City side who levelled the game at 1-1 and 2-2 before Chelsea pulled away in the second half. Conte said that opponents were more motivated to beat Chelsea now, to end their run, and that this meant his team had to work even harder to keep winning.

“We deserved to win this game” Conte said. “Now it's not easy after 13 wins in a row, you face teams that want to beat you, not only to take three points but for many reasons. It's more difficult. We must know this. But when you have this type of player, you can go to sleep happy.”

While Conte revels in the fact that his Chelsea team were “underestimated” at the start of the season, he recognised the fact that they are now on a perch that opponents want to knock them off. “It is important to know it's not easy to repeat this run,” Conte said. “It will be very difficult for us over what remains of this season. We started this season as underdogs, underestimated. And now we have the light of a great first part of the season on us. The light is on Chelsea. We must realise this and we have to work more, harder still, to find, game by game, the right solution to try and win. It won't be easy but, today, we are very happy.”

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Mark Hughes was pleased with Stoke’s “positive performance”, and said that the Premier League title would be a “close call” between Chelsea and Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.