Conte praises Chelsea’s work ethic following Southampton win

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte praised his sides’ work ethic, following their 2-0 victory over Southampton.

The win at Southampton was Chelsea’s fourth successive win, and a fourth straight clean sheet under Conte’s new 3-4-3 formation. The born again Eden Hazard scored early on before Diego Costa maintained his status as the league’s top scorer with a sumptuous 20-yard effort to wrap up the points.

After a disastrous September, in which they lost to title rivals Liverpool and Arsenal in consecutive weeks, Chelsea seemed to have turned a corner in wake of the new formation and are now just one point behind leaders Manchester City.

Conte told Sky Sports:

I’m very happy because I saw great commitment and work-rate during the game from all the players, with and without the ball. This is the right way to play, because when we work together against a very strong team, I think that I as the coach must be very happy after this performance. It’s fantastic that for a fourth game we did not concede a goal, and also we scored two goals and created many chances. We are working very hard.

Conte also remained bashful when asked whether his side could challenge for the title this season. Whilst hailing the travelling Chelsea faithful for their unrelenting support of the team during the game – a vastly stark contrast to some of the comments made by the Italian after last weekend’s demolition of Manchester United.

I have the same opinion. Now it’s early to answer and speak about title contenders, I repeat that we must work very hard to continue because this is the right way, but we can and must improve. After the first part of the season, I can tell more about this run. We played against United and scored early as well, but when you play away it’s different because the home support pushes the team, but our supporters were saying great things.

They were fantastic from the first minute until the end. I want to say thank you to our support, from me and my players, because we won this game together – the players on the pitch, and the supporters as well.