WHAT NEXT FOR ANXIOUS CONTE?
Chelsea’s restless soul is undone by Arsenal
Chelsea were a goal up when the first chorus of ‘antonio’ went up from the 3,800 away supporters.
antonio Conte was too worked up to notice, flexing and twisting in his technical area. The Italian went through his full repertoire of pitchside gesticulations and he brought a roar of amusement when he ordered Ross Barkley to heel like Barbara Woodhouse when it was time for him to replace Willian.
he was so close to Wembley and more silverware, something tangible to support his pre-match claims that this was already a ‘successful season’.
Yet arsenal have proved stubborn opponents for Conte and when the pinball deflections fell in their favour another trophy faded from Chelsea’s view.
Conte is a restless soul at the best of times and this season is threatening to lead him into the sort of territory he had consigned to the past.
Not for eight years, when he quit atalanta having failed to rescue the team from a slide towards relegation has he encountered anything approaching failure.
he returned at siena in serie B and led them to promotion, moved swiftly on to a hat-trick of titles in three years at Juventus and won the Premier league in his debut season at Chelsea following two years in charge of Italy.
The title is out of reach this season and Conte has been locked in a fractious internal tussle about transfer policy.
ever since missing the Double when beaten by arsenal in the Fa Cup final at Wembley in May, things seem to have unravelled for the Italian.
It started with the exiling of Diego Costa and missed targets such as Romelu lukaku and alex sandro and an indifferent pre- season and defeat on penalties in the Community shield. again, it was arsene Wenger’s team in the way.
With the transfer market again open, Conte had given his feelings another airing on the eve of this tie, frustrated by Chelsea’s inability to compete financially for alexis sanchez as he joined Manchester United.
and after last night’s defeat, he said: ‘sometimes I can have an impact and sometimes I can’t. But my first task is to be a coach and try to improve my players. For sure, I don’t have a big impact on the transfer market.’
None of this will have escaped the attention of Wenger who took henrikh Mkhitaryan in exchange for sanchez and while the new signing adorned the cover of the programme he was unable to feature because he was cup-tied.
Mkhitaryan watched his new team from the bench behind Wenger, who was in Conte’s position when Roman abramovich turned up at stamford Bridge and blew the wage structure into another orbit.
since then, Chelsea have reached 13 finals, winning nine of them. No 14 will have to wait. There is still the Fa Cup, with Newcastle at home on sunday. Or even the Champions league, but it is Barcelona next.
Conte was wrong to think last season’s heroics might convince abramovich to open the bank vault once again. This may be a slightly different Chelsea: not afraid to spend but one keen to maximise value and balance the books.
Conte’s six outfield substitutes cost about £150m and Barkley, £15m from everton, was on before half-time.
Compared to the arsenal bench, it was a strong array of options. Wenger had two teenage strikers, three defenders and aaron Ramsey but the Frenchman fiddled with his formation and that was enough to transform the early deficit into a second-half lead.
he may have been criticised for his reluctance to adapt to his opponents in the past but the arsenal boss has found the measure of Conte’s Chelsea.
In eight meetings between them in the last 18 months, Wenger has lost only once.
Conte threw on more substitutes but slowly his energy drained away and arsenal fans started to goad him.
In Italy, meanwhile, edin Dzeko, the striker he wants to sign, scored for Roma.
For a serial winner like Conte it was tough to swallow.