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		</div><p>Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte hopes Diego Costa&#8217;s goalscoring return ends speculation over the striker&#8217;s future.</p>
<p>The Blues beat Hull 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and lead the Premier League by eight points after four of their five title rivals dropped points over the weekend.</p>
<p>Costa celebrated his 52nd Chelsea goal on his 100th appearance by gesturing about all the noise which has surrounded him since missing the win at Leicester, officially due to a back injury.</p>
<p>A reported bust-up with Antonio Conte and his staff, as well as speculation over a move to the Chinese Super League, had little impact on Costa, whose 15th goal of the season was followed by a Gary Cahill header.<br />
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<p>Conte, who was too busy celebrating himself to see Costa&#8217;s gesture, said: <i>&#8220;It&#8217;s important Diego played a good game.</p>
<p>&#8220;I hope with this game to finish the speculation about him, about Chelsea, about me and him. We showed we are a team with great unity.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>The five-year deal Costa signed on his arrival from Atletico Madrid runs until 2019.</p>
<p>Conte reiterated Costa was happy and under contract. Asked about the prospect of a new deal, Conte said it would be a club decision before saying &#8220;why not?&#8221; when it was put to him that a new contract for the striker would be a mark of his commitment.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I think his (current) contract put the end to all the speculation,&#8221;</i> the Italian said.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;He&#8217;s very happy to stay with us. He&#8217;s very happy to stay with Chelsea. </p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see any problem with Diego with this contract.&#8221;</i></p>
<p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ChelseavHullCityJan17DiegoCostacelebrateswithtalkinghands_large.jpg"><img src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/ChelseavHullCityJan17DiegoCostacelebrateswithtalkinghands_large.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="325" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-104231" /></a></p>
<p>Rivals Liverpool, Manchester City, Tottenham and Manchester United all dropped points on Saturday and Arsenal narrowly avoided doing so on Sunday, giving Conte plenty of reasons to smile broadly.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;Today we had the pressure to win and to exploit this weekend,&#8221;</i> Conte added.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;For sure this game wasn&#8217;t our best game, but I think it&#8217;s normal. We are in the second part of the season and the points now are heavy for us.</p>
<p>&#8220;A lot of opponents dropped points this weekend and for sure I&#8217;m pleased, because it&#8217;s not easy to play the last game of the weekend and to know the results of the other teams.</p>
<p>&#8220;To win this type of game and to exploit the situation that the other teams dropped points is very important. I&#8217;m sure about this.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>Conte was adamant the title is not already Chelsea&#8217;s to lose. He said his teams have conceded and overturned seven-point deficits with four games to go in the past.</p>
<p>The former Juventus boss added: <i>&#8220;Now we have (a lead of) eight points and there are 16 games to play.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think me, my players, we have good experience to understand that this league it&#8217;ll be very tough until the end.</p>
<p>&#8220;To stay now in that position is fantastic for us. At the start of the season not one person thought this.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>Hull&#8217;s ninth straight away loss was marred by a head injury to Ryan Mason, who was carried off on a stretcher as oxygen was administered. Curtis Davies also went off injured.</p>
<p>The visitors wanted a penalty early in the second half and felt aggrieved when Marcos Alonso&#8217;s challenge on Abel Hernandez went unpunished. Hull boss Marco Silva declined to comment on the decision.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I&#8217;m here to talk about the game,&#8221;</i> he said.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know. I&#8217;m sure you (the media) know better than me.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t stay happy with the result. We tried to come to compete and to take points. It&#8217;s not a bad performance for us.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have some problems in the first half. We had good defensive organization.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>Silva was without the injured Robert Snodgrass amid speculation over the Scotland midfielder&#8217;s future.</p>
<p>Asked if Snodgrass would be leaving Hull this month, Silva said: <i>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know. I hope no, because I want the player in the squad.</p>
<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a good player, an important player for us. Important players for us I don&#8217;t want to leave.&#8221;</i></p>
<p>Silva instead wants to enhance his squad.</p>
<p>He added: <i>&#8220;I&#8217;m sure we will improve more in the next weeks. We will improve our squad also.</p>
<p>&#8220;We need to put more players and more quality here to help our squad. I&#8217;m sure we will improve.&#8221;</i></p>
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