It`s Friday, and that means press conferences have been held ahead of the weekends games. Chelsea face the task to try and arrest Manchester City`s race to claim their Premier League crown and confound bookies like Betfair.
Antonio Conte has been giving his thoughts to the Official Chelsea Website. Chelsea are the last visiting side to have won a league game at the Etihad back in December 2016. It`s been a cold and snowy week at Cobham, Conte was asked how this affected preparations for the game.
‘For sure, the training sessions in this situation aren`t simple,` he said. ‘It`s not simple to have the pitch in perfect condition but despite this we`ve tried to work well and prepare for the game against City in the same way as last week.`
The Italian was then asked how he viewed City`s imperious climb to the Premier League`s summit.
‘When you play against this type of team, who are very strong, you must have a tactical plan in your mind to stop them, otherwise you risk losing in a bad way.`
‘It`s very difficult but at the same time we have to try to find if there are weaknesses in their team and work on exploiting them. It`s not simple to find them in this team but we have to try to find the best way to play this game against them.’
‘The most important thing in every game is to have a tactical plan offensively and defensively, you must be focused on your team. It will be very important for us not to lose that balance. In my mind, if we want to win we must have great balance in every moment of the game.`
Conte also implied that part of City`s success was down to the clubs owners being prepared to put their hands in their pockets, said the green-eyed monster,
Conte speaks of his admiration for how Man City are playing this season and that it is difficult to find a weakness in their team. He adds that when you link a good manager with the ability to spend a lot of money, this is the result.
? Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 2, 2018
That’s another nail in his Chelsea coffin. Just to make sure the Chelsea hierarchy had got the message he also added,
‘Every club has to understand their targets. Every team must have their own target before the season and try to reach this target. For every team it can be different.`
City have played twice since Chelsea have, although the two games were against Arsenal and having strolled to victories in both, they could be more considered as training games. However, Chelsea have had all week to work on a plan to try and upset the Citizens applecart, without the distraction of an actual game. Alvaro Morata started against United but his performance dropped off as the game ebbed away from Chelsea.
‘He has to work to recover the best form after an injury in his back,` said the Blues boss. ‘He must have patience, we must have patience but the most important thing is for him to work.`
Maybe he would be better starting this game on the bench and giving Olivier Giroud a chance to show what he can do from the off. Morata is more a reactive striker, rather than a pro-active one. Too much thinking time does not seem to benefit the Spaniard.
Pep Guardiola`s side are just five victories away from taking Chelsea`s Premier League crown. Guardiola`s taking nothing for granted though,
`Right now, as we sit here, they are the champions,` Guardiola said. ‘We want to take this crown but, not too long ago, they made amazing things.`
`They can do it again. They have the same manager, almost the same players. They work all week preparing for the game, so it is another challenge.`
Guardiola also had sympathy with his Italian counterpart regarding the pressure he`s been under in the media,
`I felt the same last season, all the managers know, when we are in the top, everybody has big words and says how good you are, you are a genius, you are something special.`
“When you lose, then people say ‘What are you doing here?’, ‘the players don’t follow you’, ‘you have problems with the board’!’
At least there won`t be the distraction of a media circus surrounding the two managers as there was at Old Trafford last weekend, let`s hope we can see the away side leave Manchester with a victory this time.