Chelsea’s scintillating late-year burst of form faces its biggest test yet today when Antonio Conte takes the English Premier League leaders to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
Having secured a gritty 2-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge last weekend, Chelsea have won their past seven league games — their best run since 2010 — but while City’s early-season momentum has faded, they are unbeaten at home under Guardiola and would move two points above Chelsea if they prevail.
“It’s a big test because Man City are a fantastic team,” Conte said. “Now we are a different team to two months ago. It would have been very difficult to win the Tottenham game if we were the same team as two months ago.”
Two months ago, City were the pace-setters, having won their opening six fixtures, while Chelsea were reeling from successive losses to Liverpool and Arsenal that had left them in eighth place, but City’s 2-0 defeat at Spurs revealed Guardiola’s side remained a work in progress and while they have won their three subsequent away games, they have drawn their past three matches at home.
Meanwhile, Chelsea have been flying ever since Conte switched to a 3-4-3 formation during the second half of their 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on Sept. 24.
Should they win again at the Etihad Stadium, it will be the first time they have won eight successive league matches in the same season since a sequence of nine between January and April 2007.
Today’s lunchtime encounter has been billed as a shootout between City striker Sergio Aguero and Chelsea talisman Diego Costa, who top the Premier League scoring charts with 10 goals apiece, but while both teams are dependent — if not overdependent — on a single, prolific goal-getter and have coaches who prize high pressing and relentless industry, they are worlds apart in other aspects.
Conte has picked the same team for Chelsea’s past six fixtures, whereas Guardiola has been obliged to chop and change both in terms of tactics and personnel.
No manager has made fewer changes to his starting XI than the seven made by Conte. No manager has made more changes than the 40 made by Guardiola.
It is the legacy of City’s involvement in the UEFA Champions League, as Guardiola’s need to keep his squad fresh led to a shock recall for the previously sidelined Yaya Toure, who has started City’s past two league games.
“This Chelsea side play one time a week. It is easier to prepare well, to recover well, to take full advantage of recovery,” Toure said earlier this week. “Sometimes it is tough to be focused again. You have to be mentally and physically prepared to compete.”
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