The Conte Era - Chelsea 17/18

Abramovich wrote:Love this manager, my favourite manager since Mourinho first stint.

That's not hard, tbh.

Him, Di Matteo, and Ancelotti are the only choices, really.

He's got the tactical savvy and the galvanizing verve of Mourinho Mk.I, the soft, gentlemanly gentility of Ancelotti, and the passionate, infectious exuberance of Di Matteo. Don't want to canonize him 4 months into the job and season of course, but things are certainly panning out as well as they possibly can thus far.

Blue wrote:

Shed wrote:It's the blue-tinged iteration of RAWK. Media campaigns, FA conspiracies, referee bias, "everyone's out to get us", and much, much more on unending offer.

Reminds me how majority our fans were when Mou was in charge. So glad Conte is here.

This season has been so fun, Excellent job by Conte utilizing the squad. Man this is going to be so much fun when Conte tweaks the squad and get his guys in.

You mean rotating the players within our squad or improving our line up by bringing his desired players in the next transfer windows?
Honestly the only role where I'd make a change is the LCB. Cahill's left foot weakness makes him the worst of our defence at bringing the ball forward, and it also makes him defend worse if we take account of his own goal where he gawkily and inappropriately tried to clear the ball with his right foot instead of a much more logical left foot clearance. A left footed CB good on the ball like Romagnoli that we were so linked in the summer would be gorgeous for example.

Shed wrote:He's got the tactical savvy and the galvanizing verve of Mourinho Mk.I, the soft, gentlemanly gentility of Ancelotti, and the passionate, infectious exuberance of Di Matteo.

Ye, pretty much

What a clean sweep

conte has already stolen my heart

1 0 is about as good as we could have wanted against WBA.

Costa is the real heart thief, Uncanny.

hehe

Hugely important win. As tough a game as I expected it to be in the lead-up, and Pulis surely didn't disappoint. Which makes it all the more pivotal that we were able to capitalise on probably the one mistake they made and snatch the win, as this is the kind of game lesser sides (including ourselves last year ) would have dropped points in. I'm as much a hater of the "stuff of champions" bromide as anyone, but.....

Shed wrote:Hugely important win. As tough a game as I expected it to be in the lead-up, and Pulis surely didn't disappoint. Which makes it all the more pivotal that we were able to capitalise on probably the one mistake they made and snatch the win, as this is the kind of game lesser sides (including ourselves last year ) would have dropped points in. I'm as much a hater of the "stuff of champions" bromide as anyone, but.....

Well, you look at how Liverpool failed to beat a poor west ham side, or how City couldn't beat a poor Leicester side, so us beating an ok WBA side is hugely important.

Bit of a struggle as expected and needed to be ground out in the end, but an important win, without our best player, at a ground we perennially struggle at. Can't ask for much more really.

6 points clear

Not that much of a struggle, we were in control for 92 of the 93 minutes and squandered something like 10 chances to score the second lol. Thibo was clutch af on former blue Van Aanholt at the very end . CFC fans chants should borrow one from Diego and start a "he concedes when he wants" FFS. 2 in 10

We scored one goal, rather fortuitously, against the 20th placed side in the league and could well have given up our advantage on a number of occasions. To me that's a struggle and very much in step with what we're used to at the Stadium of Light. Only difference this time was that we were able to get and keep our noses in front and hold out for the victory – our first there since 2013.

TBo plucked 2 points out the sky with that save

We got it done without Hazard and move 6 points clear, while it wasn't pretty, I couldn't ask for much more!

We're also, in mid-December and with 5 months of football still left to play, just 10 off our points total for the entirety of last season. Really puts into context just how cataclysmically awful last term was for us.

Wow, that is true.

Last season ffs. It's not that we were bad, I mean we were bad, we were abysmal, we were completely not giving a *bleep*. It wasn't even disappointing, it was excruciating. It made me lose interest in football.
This season tho, Conte reignited the fire in me. It's different than when I was younger and footballing results would swing my mood/made my day, but I do enjoy football as a hobby again

I'm starting to feel a bit like a broken record but another clinical, professional, well-marshaled win. Again not scintillating (and more bluntly probably our worst performance across 90 minutes in this run so far) but we did what needed to be done to get the points, in our 3rd game in 6 days. And in a vital week as well; City playing Arse means one or both will drop points and Liverpool with a potentially difficult game as well (Everton usually spread wide and hand them the 3 points but maybe they'll actually show up in a scouse derby for once?). Costa finally getting his 5th yellow and Kante banned for the next game as well is the only disappointment from today, but there are certainly much worse games to have them out for than Bournemouth at home. Great chance for Batman and Fabregas (who's already come up trumps in a very big way when called upon lately) to step up. In all very pleased

Yea, we looked less impressive in those last games compared to when we started this 11 games run. Not worried tho, it's normal within a season to have intensity and physical condition drops, especially with 3 games in 6 days. Hazard in particular has been slacking off.
But at the same time it's important that we are able to consistently be cynical and score at the first opportunity and being able to hold the lead while not looking spectacular, akin to how SAF's United won so many PL by grinding out those difficult wins. Or someone more familiar to us like a Mourinho team, preferably in a season when he doesn't forget to take his medications.

I think Cesc is starting to adapt to Conte's system and we will probably see him in the starting XI in the future regardless, so I'm confident with him. With the 3421 he has a lot of options and movement off the ball for his through balls, as well as a more comfortable environment to start the play from the back. The downside is that we will lack the dynamism and intensity Matic provides (ffs, did you see how high did Matic and Kante press, even at the 70/80 minute mark) but it shouldn't be much of a worry vs Bournemoth at home.
On the other hand we will miss Costa's King Mida's moment, but that fifth yellow was bound to happen, and it's a good chance to see Michy in action. From what we've seen from him until now he has a very good moment off the ball, but unlike Costa he's very selfish, he uses it to get a shot and not to create space for others. But maybe that was down to him being subbed in when we were in desperate need of a goal. We'll see.
I think we're fine on the subs department, except a lack of alternatives for the wingbacks, which is why Ivanovic is being subbed in nearly every game.

If there was a game for us to lose player, Bournemouth would be my choice, but it won't be an easy one.

That said, another win is fantastic, if things go our way, we could be 8 points ahead tomorrow.

Would have loved to see Mitchy but it's hard to imagine us playing without 2 of Costa/Hazard/Pedro/Willian with the form they are. I agree with Conte on this decision, but I would be pretty pissed off if I was Mitchy.

Other than that, a very solid performance another win another cleansheet

I was disappointed not to see Michy myself and he'll have been as gutted as any of us watchers-on, but the manager has to make decisions that best serve the team as a whole and on the day's evidence, that's precisely what he did. Nice to get back to more dominant ways and run up the score a bit even without the league's leading scorer, as we arguably should have been doing all along in that trio of 1-nil's. Hazard magical, Pedro superb (plus getting his 5th yellow to ensure availability for Spurs the old legend ), and our defense once again imperious. Never troubled and never in doubt. Brilliant matchday (again) all around.

12 – Chelsea have won 12 consecutive league games for the first time in their history. Record.

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) 26 December 2016

Pretty sure these 2 goals conceded in 12 games has to be some kind of record as well. Let's keep breaking records

Due to being a modest bloke I wont brag too much but I do believe i have substantial amount of contribution in Chelsea's current fine form and probably winning the league.

Lucifer wrote:Due to being a modest bloke I wont brag too much but I do believe i have substantial amount of contribution in Chelsea's current fine form and probably winning the league.

And you did it for free as well ffs. You should ask for compensation the next time a club benefits from your services.