Tottenham boss believes still have an advantage in the race to finish in the top four, while he has refused to discount despite being six points clear of the Red Devils.
Spurs currently occupy fourth spot after winning six of their last seven Premier League matches, though their north London rivals are only three points further back and crucially have a game in hand.
Far from setting his sights on third-placed , Conte feels Tottenham still have a mammoth battle on their hands to secure Champions League football and believes five teams are still in the mix including United.
Asked if Spurs could push Chelsea – who are five points ahead – for third place, Conte replied: ‘But I think first of all we have to think to ourselves and to look to ourselves and not the other opponents.
‘Arsenal have one more game in their hand than us.
‘But it is not just Arsenal in this race, there is Arsenal, Manchester United, West Ham, Wolves.
‘I think in this race you can finish first – in this race – if you don’t make a lot of mistakes.
‘It’s important to feel the right moment to push. For us, on Saturday, it will be a really important game [against Brighton] because we are going to play against a really strong team.
‘We played against them twice in the last period, but honestly in both two games we struggled a lot against them because they are well organised, they have good players, a good manager.
‘In the last game, they won against Arsenal and I watched the game and they deserved to win. They were not lucky, they deserved to win.
‘For this reason, in this moment, it will be very important not to make big mistakes, to try to get three points also if you know very well it will difficult against Brighton.
‘But we are working very well, the players and my staff are working very well, I have seen great focus in this week and hopefully we’ll try to get three points in this race on Saturday, it will be very important to put pressure on the others.’
Conte conducted his pre-match press conference via Zoom on Thursday after testing positive for Covid, but he expects to be in the dugout for Saturday’s clash with Brighton.
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