What a difference a year makes. December 2015 was perhaps the most tumultuous period in recent history at Chelsea Football Club.
Rooted near the bottom of the table and just a single point above the relegation zone, the Blues had lost everything that had made them champions just seven months earlier.
A loss to the charging Leicester City was the tipping point that saw the ‘special one’ become the ‘sacked one’. Fast forward 12 months and, under the leadership of the charismatic stallion that is Antonio Conte,
Chelsea will be top of the table on Christmas day having also achieved a club record unbeaten run of 11 games in a single season. There are no signs of stopping.
The remarkable turnaround between the Jose Mourinho Chelsea and that of Conte is incredible. He has Eden Hazard back to his best, a similar vein of form that saw the Belgian crowned PFA Player of the Year in the 2014/15 season.
Thibaut Courtois, who was seemingly on a one-way ticket back to Spain, has put in some incredible performances this season and the Italian manager even has Diego Costa firing on all cylinders.
The striker is topping the goal scoring chart for this season thus far with 13. Currently sat on 43 points and six ahead of their nearest rivals, only one team has failed to win the league from such a position in the last five seasons.
Perhaps the most remarkable change that Conte has brought about is he is making Chelsea likeable.
Begrudgingly so perhaps, but in the same way Jürgen Klopp excites the British media with his quotability and attacking style of football, Conte’s animated celebrations on the touchline of every game is something that is a joy to behold.
He brings a true sense of passion back into English football and most certainly Chelsea Football Club. The way he speaks, you truly believe that after a painful loss to Arsenal and Liverpool before that, he sat down and drew up his master plan and from that point on executed in such a precise and exact manner that it has managers and pundits alike struggling to find a weakness in a team that a year ago, couldn’t buy themselves a win.
A true hallmark of a Premier League title contender isn’t a mercurial striker, a world-record fee midfielder or a gifted defender. The recent one-nil wins they have earned have set them a cut above the rest. They are a squad that truly believe in their manager’s philosophy, system and tactics.
They will jump in front of a bullet for each other. That is the difference Conte has made. They have a frightening will and ability to win as a team and execute their plan on a week to week basis. They are the team to beat this season.
