Chelsea finished the two-week tour of Asia with back-to-back losses to Bayern Munich and Inter Milan after a very nice win against Arsenal, with Antonio Conte sticking to mostly the same tried and true lineup (injuries permitting) that got Chelsea the Premier League title last season. But while that continuity is nice to have, we’ve seen a similar situation play out just a couple summers ago. That must be avoided at all costs.
“We know the difficulty of the next season and for sure we want to avoid the Mourinho season with Chelsea.”
“Personally, I want to try to avoid the last two seasons. Because two coaches were sacked, from Chelsea and then from Leicester after they won the league. For sure I want to avoid that.”
-Antonio Conte; source: Sky
After two weeks and three games on tour, Chelsea fly back to London with lots of tired legs, which further underlines the need for a few more signings in the last month of the transfer window. This is something Conte has been talking about for much of the past month, and while the Board have delivered with Morata, Bakayoko, and Rüdiger, the job is not yet done — not to mention, all three still have plenty of work to do to get up to speed in Conte’s system.
“Morata is having training with us and for sure he has to improve a lot his physical condition to go quickly to the idea of our football,’ he added, ‘but he is working very well and today he tried to do his best but for sure he has to improve.”
-Antonio Conte; source: Chelsea FC
“We are working very well and we hope to find the best solution in the future. We have a lot of young players and if necessary we will have to try to play these players.”
“We played against two strong teams, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in a period that for us is very important because we’re working very hard. We had to play three games with the same players when we are very tired. We have to continue to work hard, it doesn’t change.”
-Antonio Conte; source: Telegraph