Chelsea’s Conte hails a year to remember

London: Chelsea manager Antonio Conte reflected on a memorable 2017 as the Premier League champions rounded off the year with a 5-0 demolition of Stoke.

While Conte’s side are lagging well behind leaders Manchester City in this season’s title race, the Italian is still delighted with the way the last 12 months played out in west London.

The Blues won the title in May and also reached the FA Cup final in a glorious first season at Chelsea for the former Italy coach.

Even if a successful title defence is unlikely, there is still silverware up for grabs in three other competitions in the second half of the season.

“To finish this year in this way is great for me, great for the players, great for the club and our fans,” Conte said.

“This year was a fantastic year because to win the title in England is not easy.”

Chelsea’s squad is stocked so heavily with talent that the absences of Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas and Andreas Christensen in the interests of squad rotation went almost unnoticed against hapless Stoke on Saturday.

In addition, Conte was able to take off Victor Moses, N’Golo Kante and Alvaro Morata, all by the 71st minute, to rest their legs ahead of the visit to Arsenal on Wednesday.

“I am very happy because I made some rotation changes today and when you have this type of response from your players you must be pleased,” Conte said.

“Manchester City have created a big gap between them and the other teams, but we have to put all of ourselves into every game and to put a bit of pressure on teams above us.

“I don’t think you can play relaxed in this type of game in England, but I was very pleased to finish the game with another clean sheet.

“We are showing good solidity. If you compare this season with last season, we have conceded less goals. We’ve scored less, but we’ve conceded less, too.”