Chelsea’s title is all down to Conte making his case for the defence
‘A central-defensive three will have no problems with an out-and-out striker like me, but the two wing-backs play high up, so I’m going to have to hold things up and bring in Leroy Sane, Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling’. I wouldn’t be surprised if Conte didn’t counter that by telling his wing-backs to stay at home and almost make it a back five. But if they do push on and play high, there will be space for City’s attacking midfielders to exploit and I could see Sane opening the scoring. That said, I still expect a 1-1 draw or a 2-1 win for Chelsea with Costa on target… and my crystal ball has served me well this season. In the grand scheme of things both would take a draw and, if that is the case, then Conte’s title tilt, having floundered against Crystal Palace on Saturday, is back on. And it will largely be down to the case he has made for defence. pay massive respect to how the English play’.
And, within four or five games, when they weren’t picking up points and were losing to Liverpool and Arsenal, he went to a back three. Then, hey presto, it was all rosy in the garden.
The security David Luiz, Gary Cahill and Cesar Azpilicueta provide at the back has given the rest of the team a platform and they have done the business.
If you’re Diego Costa, then you’ll be looking forward to what you’ll be up against in City’s back four more than Sergio Aguero will be against Chelsea’s defence. If I was Aguero I’d be thinking, for Conte’s men to blow it now. To be fair to Guardiola, he isn’t the only manager who has focused on attack first and defence second.
Jurgen Klopp has done the same at Liverpool and so has Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.
Wenger’s philosophy hasn’t changed for 20 years and we know now he will always be stuck in that mindset.
But, whatever they say publicly, Guardiola and Klopp will have learned they can’t just come to the Premier League and blow teams away with high-pressing, attacking football and forget how important defending is. Conte looked at things and said,
‘I’m going to WHEN Antonio Conte arrived in England last summer he did one thing differently to Pep Guardiola – he acknowledged the importance of defending. And that’s why, with nine games to go, his team sit top of the Premier League, seven points clear of second-placed Tottenham and 11 clear of Guardiola’s fourth-placed Manchester City. That gap over City will be even greater if they beat them at Stamford Bridge tomorrow and, even if the game ends all square, which I think it will, then I’m convinced the title race will be over. Chelsea’s run-in is so much more straightforward than Spurs’ run-in and, if you ask any player, manager or coach, they will tell you points on the board are always preferable to games in hand. That’s not to say Spurs can’t go on and win every game and that Chelsea won’t drop points. But it would be a breakdown and loss of form of gargantuan, Devon Loch proportions