Never mind Pep and Jose ...watch out for this guy!
IT is a year since the storm clouds rolled in over Stamford Bridge and Chelsea’s defence of the Premier League spectacularly unravelled.
My third column of last season was devoted to Chelsea. They had been through a difficult summer and on the back of dreadful afternoon against Manchester City, when they were thrashed 3-0, the champions — and Jose Mourinho — dominated conversations across the land.
Now here we are 12 months on. Mourinho, inevitably, is once again at the centre of the plot and we have been wrapped up in the early stages of the tussle between him and Pep Guardiola that is unfolding in Manchester.
But Chelsea? At the minute, it feels like they are flying under the radar. You cannot help be drawn to Mourinho and Guardiola but it would be a mistake for everyone not to pay the closest attention to the work of Antonio Conte.
Chelsea aren’t a popular club around the country. We don’t like the fact that they continually chop and change managers, that men with the pedigree of Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti can be sacked at the first sign of trouble.
But Roman Abramovich set an agenda from day one. He is ruthless and sent out a message that he is there to win. Consequently, everybody at that organisation knows what is expected of them and they have appointed a manager who embodies that approach.
Already, after just three games, we have seen Conte will not shirk any decision — Cesc Fabregas, who has lost his place, will already acknowledge that — to get the result he wants.
LOOK
at his opening night at Stamford Bridge. After conceding an equaliser in the 77th minute, Conte made three substitutions against West Ham, including dragging off Eden Hazard, who had been man of the match. The outcome? A lastgasp 2-1 win.
It was the same again at Watford seven days ago. Three changes, all made in the final 20 minutes, saw a 1-0 deficit turned into another 2-1 victory. Though it is early days, these are the results that propel you into the title race — and that is where I firmly expect Chelsea will be this year.
Maybe it is because the standard of Serie A is not as good as the glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s — and Juventus have resources far in advance of their rivals — that Conte’s achievement of winning the Italian title for three consecutive years is almost being taken for granted.
But it is worth looking back at what Juventus were before he was appointed in 2011. They had not won a trophy after being caught up in a match-fixing scandal, which resulted in them being relegated in 2006, even though they returned to Serie A at the first attempt.
Juventus had finished seventh for two consecutive seasons before Conte was recruited and in 2010-11, they finished 24 points behind champions AC Milan. Nobody was considering them as being in the title race yet they won their first league in 2011-12 without losing a game.
You can draw parallels with the situation in Turin to the one that was presented to him in London. Juventus had no European football to distract them when they became champions for the first time under Conte and Chelsea’s free midweeks will only be to their advantage, especially older players such as John Terry and Branislav Ivanovic.
Chelsea’s attitude was disgraceful last season. No way should a squad with that ability have finished 10th, 31 points behind Leicester. Don’t be fooled into thinking they are in terminal decline. Chelsea’s group is top-four standard at the minimum.
When Hazard is showing signs of the form that made him PFA Player of the Year and then add Diego Costa, Willian, Fabregas and Oscar to it, if they raise their levels to what you would expect, that is a great attacking combination, one that would rival anyone in the league.
Conte, effectively, has got the title winners from 16 months ago and added the class of N’Golo Kante and the promise of Michy Batshuayi to the group. Chelsea may have started the summer expecting to buy six players but the two they have got so far are excellent additions.
THEY
need to buy another central defender and Chelsea’s attempts to buy Kalidou Koulibaly and Alessio Romagnoli from Napoli and AC Milan have so far ended in frustration, but I don’t believe the window will shut without them making a significant defensive addition.
What I like about Conte, however, is the fact he adapts to situations. He isn’t a manager who is rigid and only has one way of playing, he is open-minded.
He had always played with a back four at Bari but on arrival at Juventus, Conte saw three top-class central defenders and went with them.
We then saw in the summer, when he was in charge of Italy, just how good he was at moulding a team with lesser individuals together. Leonardo Bonucci, the Juventus and Italy defender who formed such a rock- solid backline with clubmates Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini, referred to him as a ‘master’ at gelling a team. Italy didn’t have a star name to call on in France but I felt they were really unlucky and two of the performances I enjoyed most were their victories over Belgium and Spain.
Italy were compelling viewing and I loved watching Conte charging around on the touchline just as much, burning with passion and intensity. The best managers are the ones who physically add points to their team’s tallies and I always say Sir Alex Ferguson was worth an extra 10 points for United.
Even at this stage, you could say Conte has added four to Chelsea’s total. He urged them to go for a winner against West Ham and then did the same at Vicarage Road — how important might they be at the end of the season?
Another win against Burnley this afternoon and Chelsea will head into the international break in a familiar position in the leading pack. Can they go the distance? You will underestimate them at your peril.