Chelsea manager Antonio Conte feels your pain, Chelsea FC supporters. It was an ugly win, but it was three points nonetheless, as the Blues edged visiting Southampton 1-0, in a game that they really should have won by a very large margin, given how they essentially dominated the match.
Conte admitted “you have to suffer” when you’re unable to finish and kill the game off with the second go ahead goal. Instead you have to see the rest of the match out unable “to be relaxed” and “afraid” Saints could equalize and thus drop two points from the weekend result.
Marcos Alonso’s free kick provided the only scoring in the match. Chelsea dominated shots by a margin of 24-6 and shots on goal 8-2. They also owned possession 54%-46%
“When you do not score the second goal, you have to suffer,” Antonio Conte said postgame.
“You are afraid at every corner and free-kick and the opponent has the chance to draw. We dominated the game, shooting 24 times, hitting the post and we needed to score the second goal to be relaxed.”
Southampton have typically been a Europa League contender at best, and high mid-table at worst in recent years, so this season has been extremely disappointing to them. They now sit 12th in the table with 18 points through 18 matches.
Defending league champions Chelsea now sit third with 38 points.
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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