Chelsea boss Antonio Conte analysed the Blues win at Brighton and, of course, he noticed his team improved respect to the performances of the last month, where they barely scored a goal:
“[It was] A good game, a good result for us. In the last period, we didn’t score a lot. Instead today we scored four goals, we created other chances to improve the final result,” the Italian claimed.
“We kept another clean sheet, which is very important for us, despite Brighton creating chances to score. Before the game, a lot of people had a lot of apprehension for suspensions and injuries.
“But, during the game, we showed a great personality to be a team. We started the game very well, scored twice quickly with good combinations between our strikers. This is very important and we must be happy for this.”
Speaking about man of the match Eden Hazard, he said:
“Eden Hazard scored twice. For us, it’s important Hazard, Willian and Moses all score. But, from tomorrow, every single player that scored today has to forget he scored and must try and score again against Arsenal.
“This is the most important thing: to be happy for today’s performance but, from tomorrow, to think about another important game against Arsenal, another important situation to try to help the team to win.”
Then, his answer to the people who said that Chelsea were in a “crisis”:
“Whoever said this has to pay attention to the stats. We’re unbeaten in 14 games. It’s normal that the press try to see the negative aspect and don’t see the positives.
“But this team, with many problems, are unbeaten in 14 games in every competition. This means means we are performing important work with these players to win in this way, despite five players less: Fabregas, Drinkwater, Courtois, two suspensions in Pedro and Morata. Despite this, we won 4-0.
“That means that every player deserves his chance, and every player has to fight to play. Now we have to continue in this way. I’m pleased with the responses of all the players today. You could see on our bench there were Charly Musonda and Sterling and Ampadu, the present and future of Chelsea.
“The club has committed to work with the young players to improve, and I’m doing this. Christensen is only 21 and playing every game. We are doing an important job for this club. We have to continue in this way. Every player today showed a great responsibility.
“For this reason, I’m very happy because every player felt this responsibility. To grow in this aspect is very important for us.”
Conte also explained why Danny Drinkwater was ruled out of the game:
“Danny had a kick on his ankle in the game against Norwich. He’s not so lucky this season (with injuries).
“He’s having many problems from the start of the season. I hope to recover him very quickly.”
About the two penalties that referee Jon Moss didn’t concede to Brighton when the score was still 0-2, Conte said:
“I think that, in England, seeing a penalty is not simple. It’s very difficult to see a referee whistling for a penalty. You can see what happened in the last game against Norwich.
“In this league, there is this type of valuation for one team, for another team. I don’t know because I didn’t see these two situations, so I can’t give an evaluation about this.
“But, at the same time, I can tell you that the new system – if we learn to use it very quickly – can help a lot to avoid big mistakes if there are big mistakes. This system will be very important for every team because, in this way, you won’t have doubts.”