Thibaut Courtois believes that the “smaller” games will decide if Chelsea win the Premier League title this season, as their excellent start continued at the weekend.
Following a difficult September, Antonio Conte’s men have bounced back in some style, winning their last seven top flight games on the bounce, the latest of which came on Saturday at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea beat Tottenham Hotspur to keep pace with the teams around them, as they look like genuine title contenders at this stage.
The Blues endured a nightmarish season last term following their Premier League triumph in 2014/15, finishing 10th under Jose Mourinho and interim boss Guus Hiddink, but it’s been a different story since Conte arrived at the club in the summer, getting the best out of the players and deploying a so far formidable 3-4-3 system.
However Courtois believes that Chelsea still need to prove their title credentials against the smaller clubs this season, suggesting those games could define their campaign.
“We are taking it match by match,” the 24-year-old Belgian international said (via the club’s official website). “It’s quite hard to keep a run going in this league but after the couple of matches we lost we have won seven in a row which is very good.
“Now we are going to Man City to try and get another result, and then after it the next away games are at Sunderland and Crystal Palace, and it is games like those that decide if you are going to be champions or not.
“You can win big matches even if you’re not having a good season, because it is a big match or a derby, but it is the smaller matches against difficult adversaries that you will see if you are going to be champions or not.”
Courtois has kept seven clean sheets and averaged 1.62 saves-per-game in 13 Premier League appearances this term, with a distribution success of 69%, as the Blues sit top on 31 points, one clear of both Liverpool and Manchester City.
Next up for them is an away clash at City this weekend, before taking on West Bromwich Albion at Stamford Bridge.
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