Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
How Conte conquered the rebels ...and the Premier League
CHELSEA BOSS CHANGED SYSTEM TO FIND TITLE KEY
THE great expectations surrounding his arrival were tempered by his limited English and the rock-bottom morale in the Chelsea dressing room. In the circumstances Antonio Conte went on to play a blinder. His was an outstanding debut title success, leaving the rest of the Premier League field trailing. He had taken a team that had finished 10th the year before and rediscovered their mojo. Conte has been confounding expectations, however, even since his arrival last July. Ahead his first press conference, on July 14, 2016, the word was that the Italian’s grasp of English was minimal at best. With the world’s media in his face at Stamford Bridge he was accomplished enough to make clear that Chelsea would be back. “Someone can think that Chelsea are not favourites for the title.” he said at the time. “That might be right after last season. But we are ready.” Actually they were not as prepared as Conte had hoped they would be. Unconvincing victories over West Ham and Watford were followed by a 3-0 win over Burnley. But at Swansea in mid-september the wheels began to fall off. Chelsea were held in Wales, outclassed at home to Liverpool and destroyed at Arsenal to spark fears that they would struggle to finish in the top four, let alone the driving seat. It led to a visit from Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich to the Blues’ Cobham HQ for some moral support. The pair spent hours poring over videos while Abramovich made it clear to his ailing squad the hotline they had had to him to undermine previous managers had been shut off. Conte was the man with the power now. As for the Italian, he scrapped the 4-2-4 system he’d been intent on persisting with and opted instead for the 3-4-3 formation that would be copied throughout the Premier League. Conte had actually used it to stop the rot during the second half against Arsenal with the Gunners threatening to run riot at the Emirates. It would breathe new life into his Chelsea team to such an extent that they were near-invincible over the subsequent 13 games. Ronald
Koeman, on seeing his Everton team demolished 5-0 at Stamford Bridge in early November, described Conte’s serial thrillers as the best exponents of the formation he’d ever seen. Manchester United and defending champions Leicester had already been seen off as part of Chelsea’s record-equalling sequence while Tottenham and Manchester City would also bite the dust as the Blues carried all before them. It was Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino who ended the impressive run in the return fixture at White Hart Lane on January 4. That month, Diego Costa would add to Conte’s woes with his agent indulging interest from China and a row with a fitness coach seeing the Blues’ star striker dropped. Could Chelsea go again without him? Yes, they could. A resounding win at Leicester proved the Blues were no one-man team. They also began early FA Cup progress that would lead to the final at Wembley. It was in the Premier League, however, that they were simply unstoppable. Liverpool held them at Anfield, Burnley held them at Turf Moor. But Conte’s men would lose only twice more to see off Tottenham’s consistency and punish the selfinflicted wounds that proved fatal for the rest. When it was all over, Conte admitted he had feared the worst back in September. “It was very difficult to think about celebrating winning the league after the Arsenal defeat,” he said. “We had a lot of big problems to solve. To find the right solution quickly was not easy. “If you had said we could qualify for the Champions League, I’d have signed for that. “Then I found great players, and we were able to change our season.”