After a few poor performances, one notably against Arsenal and Liverpool, Antonio Conte has changed a few things tactically at Chelsea and they’ve not looked back since. After a straight forward 2-0 win against Southampton, they are once again being talked up as title challengers, and here we look at 3 reasons why this is a possibility.
1. Eden Hazard
The 2015/2016 was a season that Hazard will really want to forget. The season before he was being hailed as one of the best players in the Premier League and indeed the world. Moves to Real Madrid and Barcelona were mentioned, but Chelsea kept a hold onto their main man, however, he had a dreadful season where he scored just 4 Premier League goals.
This season, under Antonio Conte, he is a completely different personality. He is playing with a swagger again. And this has been shown in his recent goal tally. The Belgian flyer has a superb 5 goals in 10 premier league appearances so far and is benefiting from the narrow forward position in which he now operates. Away from home, he is a key man for Chelsea, as seen in their victory against Southampton. They like to defend deep and soak up the pressure and rely on Hazard’s pace and dribbling ability to move them up the pitch quickly on the counter attack.
2. Diego Costa
His first season in the Premier League was hampered by injury and he still managed to score 20 goals in 26 appearances. However, last season was a year to forget and he had a return of just 12 goals from 28 appearances.
But Antonio Conte has his main man fit and firing once more. He has already scored 8 goals in 10 matches and looks a great bet to finish as the Premier Leagues top goalscorer. What is most noticeable for Costa is that he looks a lot fitter than he has been for a few years. At Atletico Madrid, he famously had a lot of hamstring injuries which had to be carefully managed. These problems also reared their head in his first two seasons at Chelsea. But now, with only one game a week to concentrate on and Michi Bayshuayi reducing some of the workload, the Brazillian born forward is flying and looks free of any injury concerns.
3. Defensive stability
The defeat against Arsenal was a turning point for Conte. It was obvious that he wanted to play with three at the back, but at the time he didn’t think he quite had the players to play the formation successfully.
However, after that defeat, he opted to play Azpilicueta as one of the back 3, alongside David Luiz and Gary Cahill.
He has also ignited the career of Victor Moses, who looked destined for a career away from Stamford Bridge. However, he has harnessed his stamina, his work rate and his quality in forward areas to play him as a rampaging right wing back.
And you can see the results by yourself. Chelsea have not conceded a single goal in their last four matches and are looking extremely stable defensively.