Conte, Hazard no longer feeling blue

CHELSEA’S Antonio Conte was named Premier League Manager of the Month yesterday after leading the club to four consecutive wins in October, while winger Eden Hazard picked up the player’s prize for the first time.

Conte saw his side pick up just one point in September, but after a tactical switch to the former Italy manager’s preferred 3-4-3 formation, the Blues scored 11 goals and kept four clean sheets in October.

“It’s a great honour and I will share this with my players and the club,” Conte told the Premier League’s website.

“It is the first time I work in another country with a different culture, and when you want to bring your own philosophy it is not easy, but now I am glad for this choice.”

Hazard, who scored three goals and claimed an assist last month, has been key to Chelsea’s revival this season and said adopting a more single-minded approach in front of goal had helped him rediscover his best form.

“People said I didn’t shoot enough,” he said. “Now I try to shoot and score every game when I’m on the pitch. Before I was thinking about the last pass to make an assist, now I can do it myself.”

Chelsea’s upturn in form has helped them climb to second in the table, a point behind leaders Liverpool after 11 games. They travel to face 15th-placed Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium tomorrow.

● Fraser Forster and Dusan Tadic are fit to start for Southampton at home to Liverpool after suffering injuries while on international duty.

Tadic could yet require a protective mask to protect his nose injury, but of greater concern to manager Claude Puel will be the late fitness tests Ryan Bertrand, Cedric Soares, James Ward-Prowse and Shane Long are to undergo. – Reuters, Daily Mail Fixtures Today: Manchester United v Arsenal, Crystal Palace v Manchester City, Everton v Swansea City, Southampton v Liverpool, Stoke City v Bournemouth, Sunderland v Hull City, Watford v Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur v West Ham United. Tomorrow: Middlesbrough v Chelsea. Monday: West Brom v Burnley.