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After what has been a turbulent week for Chelsea boss Antonio Conte, his team gave their manager the perfect tonic with a hugely impressive performance in their 1-0 away win against Bournemouth yesterday.
The Italian manager showed his frustration on Friday as he labelled reports of his good friend and former coach at Juventus, Carlo Ancelotti being about to take over from him at Stamford Bridge as ” Bullshit. ”
Recent talk that several members of The Blues squad are unhappy with their coaches training methods had only intensified the pressure on the Italian, but last nights display against The Cherries showed a group of players well and truly behind their manager.
Conte will be delighted that Chelsea’s defence looked so solid during yesterday’s victory, after his side’s backline came in for heavy cristiscism in recent weeks due to the fact they have only kept five clean sheets in their last 23 Premier League games.
However, at the Vitality Stadium David Luiz looked back to his imperious best throughout, César Azpilicueta was in the type of form that has seen many pundits describe him as one of the best out-and-out defenders in Europe and Antonio Rudiger put in his most impressive display since his big-money move from Roma during the summer.
It was, in fact, the 92nd minute when Bournemouth – who normally pride themselves on their ability to create chances – had their first shot on target.
In attack Chelsea looked razor sharp and the only slight cristiscism would be that they probably should have scored more than the one goal, such was the quality of their forward play. Some of the one touch interplay between attacking trio Eden Hazard, Alvaro Morata and Pedro was sublime. The return to match fitness and more importantly sharpness of Hazard in particular will be a massive positive for Conte.
Although the 1-0 scoreline suggests a tight affair, it’s really wasn’t, with The Blues dominating the game from start to finish and it was a much more comfortable victory than the final result suggests.
After a difficult week, Conte will be really happy with the return to form of his team ahead of next weeks crunch fixture against Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United.
Despite the season only being 10 games old, next Sunday’s fixture at Stamford Bridge is a must win game for Chelsea, if they are to stand any realistic chance of regaining their Premier League crown, although Conte will at least be a lot more confident of his side’s ability to pick up all 3 points after yesterday’s top-class performance.
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