Tipped to retain – or at least fight for – the title they won in May 2015 under Jose Mourinho, at the end of a high-scoring, 87-point season, their tenth-placed finish was the lowest of any league champion in the Premier League era, and proved nearly as shocking as passing on the trophy to Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester.
Advertisement
Antonio Conte has told Diego Costa to keep his focus purely on football as the Chelsea striker continues to enjoy a fine start to the campaign.
Conte brought on Batshuayi in place of Oscar with Chelsea trailing 1-0 to Watford at Vicarage Road on Saturday, and the Belgium striker made an nearly immediate impact in the 80th minute when he followed up Eden Hazard’s low shot to score his first Premier League goal and level the score.
Then, in the 87th minute, Fabregas’ diagonal pass sent Costa racing clear to slip the ball under Gomes for his second late victor in a week following Monday’s decisive strike against West Ham United.
Antonio Conte, right, has won his first two Premier League games in charge of Chelsea. Sure, he has a good future. “That is why now we are winning”.
“Because it’s not good for him, for me, for Chelsea or the fans”.
“The attitude is fantastic, even in training everyone wants to win games”.
“He wants to win, just like the rest of us”.
The boss says that is exactly how he wants to see the Spanish worldwide play as he feels it will bring the best out of him in the Blues’ bid for the Premier League title.
The 54-year-old is no stranger to moving between teams – in 15 years of management, Watford are already his eighth club – and, it appears, the one where he has encountered the fewest problems adapting his players to a new style. It’s very hard in this market.
Watford will feel aggrieved not to have taken anything from a game in which they matched their visitors for much of the contest.
Meanwhile, Watford boss Walter Mazzarri is still waiting for his first win and he was upset with their collapse in the final 10 minutes. It’s important to pay attention during the game because he is an important player and he can score a lot of goals.
“They are going to help us improve”.
Advertisement
With Kurt Zouma yet to make his return from a long-term cruciate ligament injury and the likes of Papy Djilobodji, Baba Rahman and Michael Hector having all exited the club over recent weeks, the Italian’s rearguard options looked somewhat bare prior to Saturday’s (20 August) comeback victory at Watford.
