Are Chelsea Back To Winning Ways With The New 3-4-3 Formation?

Are Chelsea Back To Winning Ways With The New 3-4-3 Formation?

By Ewah Chika.

Antonio Conte might have made his name in the Seria A  after winning Seria A thrice with Juventus despite taking over a poor Juventus from Luigi Delneri in 2011 (Delneri's Juventus finished  seventh a season before Conte came on board).

Conte also performed admirably well with the Azzurri's reaching the quarter-final before losing on penalties to star studded Germany after beating the likes of Belgium and Spain with a less talented Italy squad. Yet all these appear to have changed in a flash after his Chelsea side failed to win three games in a row conceding seven goals and gaining only one point which came against Swansea.
Under Conte, Chelsea boasted a 100 percent record in their first three games after seeing off the likes of West Ham, Watford and Burnley, unfortunately this did not continue as Conte failed his first acid test losing to a better technical and tactical prepared  Jurgen Klopp in Stamford Bridge as Liverpool destroyed Chelsea in the presence of billionaire owner Roman Abramovich. Chelsea's poor form continued as they drew with Swansea before being horribly  blown away  by Arsenal ( 3-0) at the Emirates.

These embarassing losses have forced the Italian to ditch his preferred 4-1-4-1 formation for 3-4-3 in the game against Hull City with Bransilav Ivanovic making way for Caser Azpilicueta together with the likes of Gary Cahill and David Luiz in defence, Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso as wing backs, Nemanja Matic and N'Golo Kante as the two central midfielders. The rest of the new formation saw Eden Hazard, Diego Costa and Willian in attack. Conte was the manager with all the smiles at the end of the game which saw his team play better winning through individual goals.

"Now we have another solution and tactical system. We can play with three at the back or four, it depends in the game but I think this is a good way.

"Today I'm very happy because we finished with clean sheet after conceding two, two and three goals in our last games. It's important to find more confidence.

"The principles are for the team to remain short and narrow, to try and win the ball back quickly and maintain good balance. These are principles, if we play with three back or four back," Conte said at the end of the Hull game.

The good news in this new system is that it brings the best out of Alonso, who is perfect in attack and crossing of the ball making him a danger man when the  Blues are in possession and the fact that it allows Victor Moses to push high up the pitch with his pace and dribbling which terrorised the Hull defence all day. Just like every other tactics, the problem with this new style is that it leaves gaps in the defence for quick and creative attackers to exploit as Gary Cahill has shown several times that he is an awaiting time bomb. With regular practice , the players are expected to get better and perfect this new style in addition to the joyous, euphoric and anticipated return of Kurt Zouma and John Terry next week pushing Cahill to the bench.

Sitting at seventh, five points behind leaders Manchester City, Antonio Conte will need something more than good balance in attack and defence  to finish in the top four this season considering the form of the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Everton not underestimating the two  Manchester clubs. For now , Chelsea have to rack up the points as quickly as possible.