LEST WE FORGET HOW GUARDIOLA PEP-PPERED CONTE AT THE BRIDGE

LEST WE FORGET HOW GUARDIOLA PEP-PPERED CONTE AT THE BRIDGE

Chelsea fans will point to last season at the Emirates as the turning point in their last season. When Arsenal drubbed Chelsea 3-0 at the Emirates, it was the signal for Antonio Conte to move into a 5-2-3 formation that eventually took the league title back to the Bridge.
Analysts hailed as Chelsea became a defensive unit that played quality counter-attacking football, destroying all comers as they romped to the league title, catenacio style.

In truth, Chelsea became extremely difficult to break down with the defensive unit of Matic, Kante, Cahill, Azpilicueta, Luiz, Moses and Alonso. The caveat to Chelsea’s wins however was the quality and genius of Hazard, Pedro or Willian and Costa and the speed with which Chelsea moved from the edge of their box defending, to the opposition six yard box scoring. If it’s not broke, you don’t fix it, but Manchester United, Arsenal twice now and Burnley have thrown spanner into Conte’s works in recent times.

CONTE’S TACTICS
Losing Nemanja Matic during the summer was a shock, especially seeing how Kante has struggled without Matic in the middle. From pre-season fumbles against Milan and co, to early season wobbles against Burnley, and Italian Catenacio against Tottenham, Conte has changed from a 5-2-3 formation to a 5-3-2 formation and a 5-3-1-1 formation as the season has progressed.
On the back of a solid European performance midweek in Madrid however, we thought Chelsea would put a halt to Guardiola’s march to the title with his enterprising side, but Pep had other ideas when he visited the bridge.

HURRICANE PEP IN MIDFIELD OVERLOAD
Pep used his full backs as midfielders at the bridge, creating problems all afternoon for Chelsea midfield, with Conte having no answer to Pep’s ingenious formation.
With two full backs joining three midfielders in the middle of the pack, City had five to play against Chelsea’s three or four (when Hazard came into midfield) and because the five at the back were engaged by City’s three strikers and two extra midfielders (who joined in), it was a torrid afternoon for Conte’s players and Conte himself at the bridge.

WORRYING SIGNS AT THE BRIDGE
The game passed Kante and Bakayoko by, Fabregas was lost in the middle and Hazard had no one to play and no outlet whenever he had the ball. Morata was so alone upfront, covering the entire front with short and long sprints which eventually popped his hamstring. At the back, Alonso and Azpi were pegged back by Sterling and Sane, while Jesus and Dasilva engaged the Chelsea central defensive three.
Chelsea have now dropped eight points in four Premier League home games so far in 2017-18; two more than in the whole of 2016-17.
Chelsea have also failed to score in consecutive home league games for the first time since November 2012.

NO REACTION / WRONG REACTION FROM CONTE
As City knocked on the door continously, Conte had no answer. There was no reaction from the bench and there was no change of tactics, no attackers pressing City’s full backs and no alteration at the back. Conte, as he did in loses to United and Arsenal (twice) failed to react.
Is it that he always needs time to analyse and come to terms with reality? Perhaps he doesn’t make decisions on the spur of the moment (one thing critics have always pointed to)

Whatever he didn’t do, what he did next was an error of judgement; replacing Morata (injured) with Wilian and almost going to a 5-5-0 formation in a desperate attempt to reverse the slide and save his tired players from humiliation on home soil. By the time Pedro and Batshuayi came in late on, the damage had been done.

PEP PRESSED HIS BUTTONS
To go to the bridge with such audacious tactic was a bold move. Did Pep know that Conte would not be able to react?
Did Pep trust his boys so much as to unleash his signature football at the Bridge?
Whatever the answer is, it worked wonders on Saturday and Chelsea were blown away by the Hurricane Pep and were second best throughout
Chelsea had 38% possession, their second-lowest in a home Premier League game since 2003-04 and had only two shots on target the whole game.
Guardiola’s men had 17 shots on target the whole match, against Chelsea’s 4.

Can Pep build on this win against the champions and march to the title?
Will this defeat become the catalyst for another Chelsea title march?
How much confidence would this win give to the City players?
What would the result do to both team’s belief systems?
Was that the coronation of the new champions or do we have a lot of many more hurdles to scale before May?

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