Diego who?

LEICESTER 0-3 CHELSEA

Leaders shrug off star striker’s absence to outclass Foxes – and deliver statement of intent

The nature of the modern Chelsea is that even the calmest waters can quickly give way to stormy conditions, so when Antonio Conte’s first player rebellion blew through Cobham this week, the Italian manager will have known he needed a robust response and a solid victory to follow.

In the aftermath of Diego Costa’s one-man insurrection, Conte delivered the first and his team came up with the second. The Brazilian-born striker was not in the squad who travelled to Leicester after a dispute with a club fitness coach which spilled over into another with his manager who, even without his leading goalscorer, went on to win this game emphatically.

The club’s policy is to avoid isolating Costa in the hope that they can bring him back into the fold with a minimum of fuss, although there is considerable anger at the way in which his head has been turned by a badly timed offer from China. Afterwards, Conte adhered to a party line that Costa had an injury, although he refused to confirm one way or the other whether there had been a row between them.

He began his press conference by politely requesting a bite from a reporter’s slice of complimentary cake, complaining that he had been given no chance to eat all afternoon. Having helped himself to a mouthful, Conte then went on to sidestep every direct question on the nature of his relationship with Costa – a definite case, you might say, of him having his cake and eating it.

An astute tactician, Conte is also proving himself a shrewd manager when it comes to dealing with the tan- trums of his star players. There is no question that the club are privately furious at Costa’s behaviour and that Conte’s dispute with his player on the training ground precipitated his exclusion from the team, but there is complete certainty at the club that there will no sale of Costa to China this month.

Instead they want to find a way back for him and will not allow the situation to escalate into the kind of stand-off that West Ham, for example, are currently locked in with Dimitri Payet. This victory was a necessary show of strength from manager and team that puts them back on course after defeat by Tottenham Hotspur at the beginning of the month.

There were two rare goals from Marcos Alonso to send Chelsea on their way to a 13th league victory in their last 14 games, that puts them seven points clear of Spurs in second place. Conte will not want to play Eden Hazard as a centre-forward, as he did at the King Power, for the remaining 17 games of the season, but it was an effective alternative on this occasion.

Conte’s players controlled Leicester in a fixture which, last season, precipitated Chelsea’s sacking of Jose Mourinho. There was a third goal from Pedro, and Jamie Vardy in particular was a peripheral figure for Claudio Ranieri, who switched to a three-man defence and then a four-man defence in an attempt to outwit his fellow Italian.

The Leicester manager said that aside from the two Alonso goals his team had played well, but really they barely created a chance.

Up against their old boy N’Golo Kanté, who showed them the kind of stability they once had, the club are in 15th and only five points off the relegation places. While the supporters showed their support for their popular former player, and ambassador, Alan Birchenall, who suffered a heart attack on Friday, they were subdued.

Ranieri became the latest manager to adapt to favoured system of the Chelsea manager, switching to a threeman defence augmented by wingbacks, and they barely had time to get used to the new formation before the first goal was scored.

The ball was moved sharply by Chelsea outside the Leicester box, before it went right to César Azpilicueta whose delivery from wide areas has been such a major asset. Pedro was first to the cross and when it dropped, Hazard unselfishly stroked the ball to Alonso, to shoot past Kasper Schmeichel.

It was a great start for Chelsea and they kept Ranieri’s side at arm’s length for much of the game. The Leicester manager had Marc Albrighton and Ben Chilwell as his wing-backs, but they rarely got into advanced positions.

Starting in a midfield three, Wilfred Ndidi, the £15 million singing from Genk, looked the part, but later, when Ranieri changed again, he found himself at centre-back.

In Chelsea’s midfield, Nemanja Matic and Kanté were outstanding. Conte will have felt that the balance of decisions went against his team, including the sliding tackle from Chilwell that forced Victor Moses to jump out of the way but went unpunished.

Whatever plans Ranieri might have had for the comeback at half-time, they were swiftly deflated by Chelsea’s second goal, another for Alonso.

Willian’s free-kick from the right, which he had won himself, fell to Alonso, who took a touch and struck a fine shot that Schmeichel would have saved were it not for a heavy deflection off Wes Morgan.

At that point, Ranieri went for a wholesale reorganisation that started with the centre-back Robert Huth being replaced by striker Shinji Okazaki.

Leicester reverted to an orthodox back four, with Ndidi at centre-back and Albrighton moved to right-back before being replaced – although not before many in a home shirt had looked thoroughly confused and sought urgent guidance from their manager.

The third goal came not long after that, a brilliant flick in the box from Pedro redirecting Kanté’s ball into the path of Willian on the right. His cutback spun up off Schmeichel and Pedro was in the ideal position to lob a header gently out of reach and into the far corner. After that Leicester were kept at bay by a dominant Chelsea defence.

Conte could afford to bring off Hazard, Willian and Pedro before the end of the game, and afterwards the Chelsea manager strode onto the pitch to celebrate with the away fans. He even stopped to sign autographs for the Leicester contingent. If it was intended to show he is calm and in control despite the events of the week, it certainly had the desired effect.

Leicester City (3-5-2): Schmeichel 5; Morgan 5, Huth 5 (Okazaki 59), Fuchs 5; Albrighton 5 (Simpson 76), Drinkwater 5, Ndidi 6, Mendy 5, Chilwell 5; Vardy 5, Musa 4 (Gray 71). Subs King, Kapustka, Zieler (g), Wasilewski. Booked Fuchs. Chelsea (3-4-3): Courtois 6; Azpilicueta 7, Luiz 7, Cahill 7; Moses 6, Kante 7, Matic 7, Alonso 7; Pedro 7 (Loftus-Cheek 83), Hazard 6 (Fabregas 78), Willian 6 (Batshuayi 83). Subs Begovic (g), Ivanovic, Zouma, Chalobah.

Referee A Marriner (West Midlands)