Conte’s Game Plan Worked Well at St. Marry

Chelsea showed another elegant performance on away game versus Southampton. It means 4^th consecetive win and 4^th consecutive cleansheet in the league for them since they use 3-4-3. The Blues displayed solid defense and dangerous counter attack to get a win at St. Marry.

Players celebrated Costa's goal twitter.com/chelseafc

Antonio Conte didn’t change the winning team against Manchester United to start the game, meanwhile Southampton only changed the leftback from McQueen into the former Blues who played on UCL final victory, Ryan Bertrand. The away team played the ball well, scored another quick goal in 6 minutes by Hazard. The goal also created by a nice build up attack from behind and exploited both wing quickly by Chelsea. Total the West London team has scored three goals in the first ten minutes three times in row. Midway first half, Soton started to play the ball and tried to create a chance. But Chelsea showed an elegant ‘Cattenacio’ in defense, just like Italian team usually do. Soton got trapped every time they play the ball near the penalty box, then Conte’s side launched a quick counter attack lead by trio attackers when they got the ball back, one of the successful counter was Diego costa’s chance, whose shot been parried away by Forster’s leg. The home side only had Tadic’s free kick as their best chance to score, but Courtois can handle it.

On second half, things didn’t change for both side. The home side’s player flowed well in their movement, but they still found difficult to have attempt on target. In contrast, by a quick short set piece, the away side scored by Costa’s beautiful long range effort. His eight goal of the season made Chelsea play comfortable at the rest of the game. Southampton suffered at the game, couldn’t create any clear chance to score and got worried every time Chelsea won the ball back. Final result is 2-0 win for away side.

Once again, the Blues’ players showed solid performance. Trio defenders worked well to defend Southampton attackers. Duo wingbacks covered their area well defensively and offensively. The pairing midfielder showed compact play to win the ball back and help the attackers. The last, trio attackers were very sharp and ‘ dangerous. Hazard played fantastic performance when launched a quick counter, dribbled to cut home side defense, scored a goal, created chances, and give assist to Costa. The target man displayed sharp and decorous performance to avoid another yellow card. Pedro could launch counter on the other side and help Moses in defense sometime. Meanwhile Courtois had a quite night as the result of ‘Cattenacio’. 

Overall Chelsea had a very good game at St. Marry. Everton will be their next opponent and it will be another tough match for Conte and his players. If they show their consistency, they will have the best chance to win the game and stay close to the leader on the table.