Can we please kill off the “Are Chelsea FC Really Truly Absolutely Legitimate Title Contenders” narrative? It’s pretty obvious what the answer to that is, and anyone disputing their league title credibility is just manufacturing fake controversy in order to fill up column inches.
I know it’s international break and there’s not a whole lot to really talk about during these next couple weeks, but c’mon man, the results speak for themselves.
Chelsea FC absolutely thrashed Everton 5-0 on Saturday, temporarily vaulting them to the top of the table. Then Liverpool utterly destroyed Watford 6-0 the next day and leaped the Blues into the top of the table.
Chelsea FC are 16-0 in goal differential in Premier League competition since Manager Antonio Conte changed his formation to 3-4-3. The Italian has it figured out now. We can all see how his comments, in response to Sir Alex Ferguson contradicting Fergie when he omitted Chelsea FC from the title contention conversation, are completely valid.
Conte says that Saturday’s annihilation of the Toffees isn’t a statement game, sending a message to the rest of the league, but what’s he supposed to say? How else can he properly answer that question to serve his own interests and those of his club?
Yes, this is a side somewhat similar to last year’s team, which finished 10th in the league. So how did Chelsea turn it around so much so fast? Because you have to remember that this is also a team that’s quite similar to the side that won the Premier League in a total runaway the season before last season.
What’s been the difference? The newly installed leadership has created a strong presence and kept everything together. The talent has always been there, we just didn’t see any team chemistry. Jose Mourinho lost the dressing room early in the season last year when Chelsea got off to a terrible start and had what is probably the worst title defense in league history.
He threw his players under the bus on occasion, just like he’s doing now at Manchester United and they never recovered. Eden Hazard went from PFA Player of the Year during the title campaign to horribly out of form to dominant again. Credit Antonio Conte for rejuvenating him.
We knew these topics and issues would be key this season. We talked about them in Michigan when Chelsea FC lost a friendly to Real Madrid.
Flashing back to August 1st, we wrote from Ann Arbor, Michigan:
What are the main goals that Conte is looking to accomplish between now and the start of the Premier League season? We asked these questions in the post match press conference at Michigan Stadium yesterday; following Chelsea’s 3-2 loss to Real Madrid in the International Champions Cup.
‘My target is to become a team,” Conte responded.
“My experience in my career as a player and a manager teach me if you want to reach a good target, if you want to fight for the title, you must be a team,” he said.
“You must be a team inside and outside of the pitch. It’s very important and it’s important to understand this and transfer this thought on the players because we must become like a family. And I think this is the key to switch, compared to last season. If we understand this, we can switch.
“If we don’t understand this, it’s not good.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.