da bet nacional： Chelsea’s victory over Hull extended Antonio Conte’s side’s lead over the rest of the Premier League: an extra point thanks to Liverpool’s defeat at home to Swansea. It was also notable for the game in which Diego Costa got back into the good books of football’s fans, followers and media after his flirtation with Chinese football clubs and their blank cheques.
da jogodeouro： But it was also notable because Hull put up a major fight for most of the game. And notable because that was the prevailing narrative after the game. (At least on a footballing score – human decency and emotion always belittles the sporting spectacle when you see a player stretchered off and taken to hospital after a horrible clash of heads.)
But the choice of narrative for this game is an interesting one. It makes sense to talk about a Hull fightback under Marco Silva. This is a club who were given almost exactly no hope of staying in the Premier League at the start of the season. A newly-promoted club so riddled with internal difficulties and seeming incompetence that their manager left on the eve of the season starting – it was never going to be easy. And their decline over the past few months cost Mike Phelan his job. At that point, doom seemed to be in the air. Yet here was a side fresh from two wins in three (before the Chelsea game) who were making life difficult for the champions-elect.
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And while that line is an interesting one, and indeed an important one, it doesn’t really do justice to what we witnessed from Chelsea on Sunday. The bigger question is what does that say about Chelsea: a team who should be beating Hull comfortably but relied on a player who may not want to stay at the club and possibly a missed penalty call from referee Neil Swarbrick?
And the answer is quite a lot: Chelsea look almost unstoppable.
It’s paradoxical, in its way. Chelsea’s form is obviously very good – they’re top of the table for a reason – and it might look more like Chelsea were unstoppable if they were more convincing in their victory. And yet, the fact that they can stall somewhat and still win the game without too much trouble – save for a penalty shout that could have brought Hull back to 1-1 and changed the game – is probably the most important factor.
It speaks to the cliched ‘mark of champions’, that a team on its way to the title tends to ‘grind out results’ by winning games when they don’t play well. It speaks to having a player – in Diego Costa – who they can rely on to bail them out of tough spots or put away tough chances. And it speaks to the value of Antonio Conte’s biggest quality when Chelsea are in a position like this: he is utterly relentless.
And in that one quality, Chelsea have found a soulmate.
Just as they did with Jose Mourinho two years ago, Chelsea are now just grinding their way to the title – a caterpillar-wheeled tank ploughing its way across rough terrain, taking fire but the bullets just bounce bounce off. That was Chelsea two years ago before the collapse, and that is Chelsea now.
Antonio Conte will see to it that Chelsea follow through because even he won’t allow himself to let any of the intensity slip.
You’ve probably already heard the story, relayed in Alessandro Alciato’s book Metodo Conte and recounted by Paolo Bandini in The Guardian, about Juventus’s final game of the 2013/14 Serie A campaign, but it’s worth repeating for some context.
Even though the league was already won – and won handsomely weeks earlier – Conte was intent on breaking the 100 point barrier. A team meeting was called, and Gianluigi Buffon showed up late, interrupting Conte with a question about player bonuses for the league victory.
It is said that Conte cleared the room just to give Buffon the hairdryer treatment for talking about bonuses instead of focusing on the one match they had left.
Of all players, Buffon is perhaps the least deserving of such a dressing down. He is a Juventus club legend, and a man who has won almost everything (that one Champions League medal still eludes his usually so solid grasp). And yet Conte was so relentless in his pursuit of victory over Cagliari in that one final match that he flew into a rage at Mr Juventus himself.
Juve won the game, and they won the league, too. By 17 points.
Conte is not just meticulous. He is relentless. And if Chelsea are going to slip up now – even when they are playing badly – it won’t be because Conte didn’t try hard enough.
If Chelsea were part of the chasing pack, the leaders would be worried about the relentless team train behind them. But Conte has taken them out in front. And there’s no getting into their slipstream now – and that’s all because of their manager.
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