Conte can win title without counting on Costa
IF DIEGO COSTA had acted up in the first week of the season, it is highly unlikely Chelsea would be where they are now. From here? They may well get by without him, if necessary.
Costa has been brilliant for Chelsea under Antonio Conte, have no doubt of that. He is one of the reasons they are seven points clear. But that’s just it. They’re seven points clear. And many of this squad have been here, or somewhere like it, before.
On January 18, 2015, Chelsea led the table by five points. They had just won 5-0 at Swansea but, equally, had lost 5-3 to Tottenham on New Year’s Day. Their next league match was at home to Manchester City, chasing them down from second place. Chelsea, without Costa due to suspension, drew 1-1 and had only three shots at goal all game — their poorest total in a Premier League fixture since season 2003-04.
And it didn’t matter because the job was still done. City had been kept at arm’s length. By May 3, when Chelsea clinched the title, they led the league by 13 points.
Plainly, it is in Chelsea’s best interests to have Costa back in the team and committed again, but it is no longer essential. If Costa is not prepared to toe the line from here, Chelsea can secure this prize with a tight defence and efficiency — just as in 2015.
Take the visit to Anfield on January 31. A draw is good enough with Liverpool trailing by seven points. It is Jurgen Klopp who must risk, who must win, who has all the pressure on him that night. If Costa is still sulking, Conte can play on the counter-attack with the pace of Eden Hazard, Pedro and Willian. Indeed, he can play out the season that way.
Picking off the small fry, as that trio did against Bournemouth and Leicester recently, and seeking to shut down those opponents who present a serious challenge. Mourinho’s strategy certainly changed in his title-winning season. There was a marked difference in Chelsea after shipping five goals at White Hart Lane.
The win at Swansea was their last statement result of the campaign. Between that and clinching the title against Crystal Palace 13 matches later, they won a single game by a margin of more than one goal — 3-1 at Leicester on April 29.
There is nothing to stop Conte adopting the same cautious tactics if he is WEST BROM manager Tony Pulis has no axe to grind over Izzy Brown. The young man was long gone by the time Pulis arrived two years ago, whisked away by Chelsea for a nominal fee in July 2013 at the age of 16. Jose Mourinho predicted a bright future, but played him once, for 11 minutes as a substitute in May 2015, when the league was already won. Yet watching Everton youngsters Tom Davies and Ademola Lookman capture imaginations against Manchester City at the weekend, maybe Pulis wondered what difference Brown might have made to his team. He is 20 now but, in true Chelsea style, on his third loan club — Vitesse Arnhem, Rotherham United and, this month, Huddersfield. Pulis says the typical £50,000 compensation for teenagers outside the senior squad is derisory, and suggests a figure nearer £5million. Certainly that would not be outrageous for moves between teams in the top division. Davies and Lookman were a delight to watch. If we want to see more occasions like that, Pulis’s plan makes sense. without Costa for any reason; no compulsion to play the same open style that defined a record run of victories in the first half of the season.
Having put four past Manchester United on October 23, a simple draw in the return at Old Trafford on April 15 would suffice. And having already beaten Everton by five, if Chelsea can win by one at Goodison Park on April 29, they should be getting near this season’s end game.
So Costa’s tantrums — the product of a difficult personality, not the hope of a move to China, apparently — are annoying but not ruinous. When a team are seven points clear, there are many ways to get over the line — and Conte and Chelsea have already demonstrated they know quite a few of them.