Antonio Conte was like a real life New Year’s Eve Facebook status update post after his Chelsea side destroyed Stoke City 5-0 today. The Italian truly embodied the spirit of the New Year holiday, as he both reflected on the year winding down and looked ahead to what’s in store as the calendar flips over.
“This was a fantastic year,” the Blues boss said, sounding a bit like a New Year’s Day Instagram reflection posting.
“To win the title in England is not simple. To be able to do this at your first chance, I will remember this year in my mind forever, but we are still involved in the Carabao Cup where we play against Arsenal.”
“Last year we were eliminated in the second round against West Ham.”
“At the same time we reached the final of the FA Cup and it won’t be easy to repeat this. In February we restart the Champions League against Barcelona. I think we have a lot of great games to face.”
In the midst of a busy festive period, one that Antonio Conte has repeatedly criticized (to the point that he even accused the schedule makers of conspiring against Chelsea), he still took some time to recall the accomplishments of 2017 and size up the challenges ahead in 2018.
We were almost a step or two away from singing “Should old acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?”
In absolutely hammering the Potters 5-0, Chelsea finished the season against Stoke 9-0 on aggregate. The Blues also whomped them in September, 4-0. While they almost certainly will not be defending their league title this season, Chelsea did overtake Manchester United for second place in the table today.
They are currently 13 points behind Manchester City, who have a game in hand.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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