Antonio Conte had a massive job on his hands when he was appointed the manager of Chelsea after their troublesome last season and early signs suggest that the Italian has not only passed the test but did it with perfection. The start for the former Juventus boss at Stamford Bridge was not the greatest. He lost back to back against Liverpool and local rivals Arsenal.
In fact, the 3-0 humiliation against Arsenal could have been damaging for the Blues but Conte showed an excellent tactical know how to make the Blues bounce back strong from that defeat and win five straight games after that without conceding a single goal.
Chelsea are now placed second on the table after 11 game weeks sitting one point behind league leaders Liverpool and if they can keep up such an amazing form, they can realistically mount the title. Let us have a look at the strengths and weaknesses of the Blues.
Strengths
Chelsea’s biggest strength is their manager Antonio Conte who is one of the best tacticians in the world. The Italian manager established a unanimous monopoly of Juventus during his time in Turin and he knows how to use his players. Since Chelsea’s loss to Arsenal, Conte has deployed a 3-4-3 system and that’s it! Chelsea are scoring for fun now and their defence now looks impenetrable. The credit goes to Conte.
The likes of Diego Costa, Eden Hazard, Nemanja Matic, N’Golo Kante, Victor Moses all are playing out of their skins at the moment. There are absolutely no flaws in their game right now. Everybody is enjoying their game, everybody is contributing and the results are coming.
Weaknesses
Well, Chelsea’s weakness is easily discoverable if you look at their bench. There is not much quality out there and injuries can take away their title dreams. Chelsea have an aging set of players who needs to be replaced. John Terry, Branislav Ivanovic, John Obi Mikel- they all have made major contributions to the club over the years but it is a high time when they part ways with the club.
Chelsea needs a quality young central defender. They also need a creative central midfielder as Cesc Fabregas is clearly not in Conte’s plans. The curious case of Oscar has turned has only become more intense as the Brazilian is struggling at Chelsea and probably needs to leave. There are plenty of areas for Conte to work on and he must use the upcoming transfer windows in order to do that.
