Marca have covered Antonio Conte’s recent success at Chelsea and call it ‘Vitamina C’, a positive injection of change from the Italian manager.
Chelsea had a terrible season under Jose Mourinho last year, which ended with the Portuguese inevitably leaving the club which was supposed to be the one of his heart. Whilst Mourinho has gone on to stutter at Manchester United, Conte has quickly got it together at Chelsea.
After a difficult start, Chelsea have climbed back up the table and currently look one of the very best teams in the league. Just like Liverpool, Chelsea don’t have any European football to contend with, which will allow their players to be more rested.
Marca are impressed that Conte hasn’t thought twice about discarding star players from his starting line-up, and that he’s very much doing things his own way.
And, of course, with Marca being Marca, there’s some snatching of the Chelsea credit for Spanish purposes. The Spanish newspaper say ‘Alonso’s entry to the team has also resulted in the improvement of Hazard’, and explain the team’s goalscoring efforts are being led by the Spanish (or sort of in Costa’s case) pair of Pedro and Diego Costa.
Marca’s kind Chelsea words echo others around Europe and beyond, with Chelsea in the newspapers for all the right reasons, after a period when they were regularly reported on due to astonishment at the club’s decline.
On Monday, Gazzetta dello Sport picked two Chelsea players, Eden Hazard and Marcos Alonso, in their European Team of the Week. Even Argentine newspaper Ole had a big report on Conte’s success, after the Everton match.
What a difference a new manager makes, Vitamin C.
