Chelsea struggle with red tide
Send-offs a worry for coach Conte
London – Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has accepted he may have to embed a new formation in his team if they continue to have players sent off.
After being reduced to 10 men in both the FA Cup final and the Community Shield, Conte’s men finished the opening game of their Premier League title defence with just nine players after Gary Cahill and Cesc Fabregas were both dismissed in a pulsating 3-2 defeat by Burnley at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. It left the Italian manager concerned by the inability of his players to control their emotions when a teammate was dismissed.
“I saw two faces of my team today,” Conte said after a match where Chelsea were 3-0 down before half time.
“One positive in the second half, one negative in the first half. We lost our composure after the first red card and we conceded the three goals.”
He added: “We have to think that there is the rest of the game to play and do our best. We must also have the right experience to face this type of situation. I have to start to study a new formation with 10 players because this irregularity is worrying.”
Conte’s sanguine postmatch analysis was no doubt inspired by the ferocity of Chelsea’s second-half comeback, first with 10 men after Cahill’s 14th-minute dismissal for a lunge on Steven Defour and then nine after Fabregas collected a second yellow card.
The Chelsea boss was also without the injured trio of Pedro, Eden Hazard and recent arrival Tiemoue Bakayoko, although new striker Alvaro Morata impressed. -