CONTE
If this rout of Championship side Brentford was the easiest
assignment of Antonio Conte's Chelsea tenure so far, the Italian knows the
hardest may be just around the corner.
The Blues will be on a revenge mission when they travel to
fourth-placed Liverpool for a crucial Premier League encounter on Tuesday
night.
Liverpool's victory at Stamford Bridge in September saw many
writing off Chelsea's title ambitions. But that defeat sparked this remarkable
current run.
Chelsea's humbling of their West London neighbours on
Saturday made it a perfect 10 wins from 10 on home soil since that sobering
reverse to Jurgen Klopp's side.
Asked if his team were transformed since then, Conte
replied: 'For sure it's true.
'After that game I said that Liverpool is already a team and
Chelsea is not a team.
'After four months a lot of things are changed in my team.
We are growing a lot, improving a lot and we have good confidence.
'It will be more difficult for Liverpool if you compare the
game here with this game at Anfield.'
If Chelsea were licking their wounds then, Liverpool are
doing the same now after three home defeats in a week. Conte knows to be wary
of a reaction.
'We know this type of situation,' he said. 'Liverpool now is
very tough for us because they had bad defeats and for this reason their focus
will be very high.
'We must pay great attention because when you arrive after
three defeats you are very dangerous and very angry. It won't be easy on
Tuesday.
'I'm sure that Liverpool is one of the teams that can fight
to the end to win the title.'
But a Chelsea victory would put them 13 points clear of
their fierce rivals with 15 games to go.
Conte has not been to Anfield as a player or a manager
before and is looking forward to his first experience.
'To play a game there is exciting,' he said with a smile. 'I
repeat we must pay great attention because of the great atmosphere and
Liverpool is a really good team. They have a good coach and really good
players.
'The crowd pushes them a lot and we must pay attention to
this atmosphere because it will help them but we have to play our football.
'We'll try to play with good intensity, with good attention
and then we'll see what happens.'
Brentford provided the gentlest of warm-ups. Conte made nine
changes to his team but Chelsea still swatted the Bees aside without breaking
sweat.
Nearly 6,000 made the six-mile journey to cheer on Dean
Smith's men, but their hopes of a shock were extinguished after only 21
minutes.
Willian curled in a superb free-kick from the edge of the
penalty area, and the tie was over as a contest when Pedro converted Michy
Batshuayi's incisive pass to double the lead.
Branislav Ivanovic – the subject of interest from West Brom
whose manager Tony Pulis was watching from the stands – came on with a quarter
of the game to go and added gloss to the scoreline and, so too perhaps, his
nine-year Chelsea career.
The Serbian made it three with a powerful drive after being
played in by the brilliant Pedro, before Ivanovic was tripped inside the
penalty area by Yoann Barbet nine minutes from time.
Diego Costa had come on to stretch his legs by then but
decided to hand the responsibility to Batshuayi who completed the scoring from
the spot. The real work for Costa and Conte will come at Anfield.
No comments:
Post a Comment