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Spotlight on fiery Costa in Chelsea-Liverpool

“He looks quite emotional, even when they don’t score”, he said of Conte’s exuberance on the touchline.

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“I do my best, I go onto the pitch and I play to the best of my ability”.

“Jurgen Klopp is a good manager, one of the best in the world and he is showing also at Liverpool a great capacity to be a great manager”.

“Tomorrow David Luiz will play for the first time with us”, Conte said at a media conference.

“I don’t know Antonio good enough to know why he is doing it”. He is very important for the team – as a person and as a player.

The Premier League table has returned to familiar type after last season’s delightful anomaly featuring Leicester City, with Manchester City and Chelsea now setting the pace and Manchester United back in the top four.

But Chelsea winger Victor Moses is convinced that Conte’s off-pitch adjustments have set the club on the right path. The food regime and the training have changed and he wants everyone to gel together as a team. “We played against each other only once, in pre-season, but he’s a fantastic manager and I’ll be glad to see him tomorrow”.

It took the England midfielder until January to reach that mark last season but this campaign he has grown in confidence, seemingly benefiting from playing in a deeper role in midfield rather than as a forward. The two teams average more shots on goal per game than any other sides in the division, while Liverpool’s players have covered more distance than any other team.

Lovren missed Leicester with a head injury sustained in training and arrived at Anfield sporting an impressive black eye.

The centre-back re-joined Chelsea from Paris Saint-Germain in the closing hours of the transfer window, but Conte was quick to stress he would need time to adapt to his new surroundings and benched the 29-year-old for the 2-2 draw with Swansea.

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“John (Terry) strained the ligament of his ankle, the doctor told me after 10 days he could be available to come back”.

Dejan Lovren with his black eye and Emre Can at Melwood. Pic from Dejan Lovren instagram