Conte’s Personal Touch Lets Chelsea Flourish

Hull City 0 - 2 Chelsea.

A fantastic second half performance from the Blues takes them past the Tigers in what was an auspicious display of things to come.

Playing three at the back for the first time proved to be a revelation for Chelsea and the scoreline doesn’t do the game justice in terms of chances for the Blues to score more.

Conte has been losing sleep over the losses Chelsea have suffered in the last two weeks but he should be at ease for the next two weeks because he has shown that there is a new platform for success and it is based off his tried and tested formation from his time at Juventus.

So many players were threatening today once they were able to rely on David Luiz, Azpilicueta, and Cahill as center backs. Victor Moses at right wing-back was particularly spectacular today, showing up all over the pitch as well as managing his defensive responsibilities.

N’Golo Kante had free reign to run down the center and looked absolutely relentless on both sides of the ball. And finally Nemanja Matic has been returned to his rightful place in behind the front players and gave balance to play like he did in 2014/15.

Marcos Alonso looks like he is a shoe-in for the left wing-back spot as he was effective up and down the flank, and even getting into the box on occasion. It’s unlikely Azpilicueta will stay at center-back in upcoming fixtures once Kurt Zouma and John Terry are back but he did well today and seemed like he welcomed a bit of a quiet game compared to his typical gut-busting runs on the flank.

There are still kinks to be ironed out, for sure. Passing is still looking like it needs to be cultured further. The game could easily have been Chelsea’s as early as the second half if there was a bit more incision from the players, but as I’ve said before the second halves of Chelsea’s games are the ones where the games are won or lost.

The really staggering thing is that in the first half Chelsea had zero shots on target, in the second half - nine. That shows that Conte is able to coax the best out of the squad once he’s assessed the performance in the first half. He has used this 3-4-3 formation to devastating effect at Juventus and hopefully he can get the team running similarly well.

For a while there it looked a bit like Chelsea were out of their depth as it was a stalemate between them and the Tigers but Conte carried the Blues through, getting them to take chances and go for the throat.