Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has revealed the 3-4-3 formation used to dispatch of his side’s last five Premier League opponents was somewhat of a last resort.
The Italian suffered a difficult start to life at Stamford Bridge with early defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal but have been flawless in the league since the beginning of October, with notable demolitions of Manchester United and Everton.
It seems no coincidence that the Blues’ success has come since switching to a rare 3-4-3 system, which has brought the best out of the likes of Eden Hazard and Diego Costa.
But as Conte explains, it wasn’t a shape he had expected to resort to with his new Chelsea side.
“We started the season with another system because the idea in my mind was that I wanted to play with the 4-2-4,” The Italian told the club’s official website.
“Then we switched with 4-3-3 and we played also in the same way like last year, 4-2-3-1.
“But I noticed in some circumstances we didn’t have the right balance because when you concede more goals than your opponent and even more chances to score a goal, it is never a good thing.
“For this reason, we switched to the new system of 3-4-3 and I think this is a good fit for our squad because also we have the strikers adapted for this system.
“I thought it would improve us offensively as well as defensively and we didn’t lose our offensive situation.
“In this way we have increased it because we scored many goals and created a lot of chances to score the goals and also if you maintain the clean sheet, I think this is the right way.”
Chelsea will look to make it six Premier League wins on the bounce when they visit Middlesbrough next Sunday.
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