Antonio Conte insists Chelsea will not play more conservatively in the second half of the season in an attempt to hold onto their commanding lead atop the Premier League.
Chelsea go into Saturday’s clash with rivals Arsenal nine points clear of their opponents and Tottenham, and will remain clear favourites to regain the title they last won in 2014-15 regardless of the result at Stamford Bridge.
In the second half of that campaign, Jose Mourinho’s team compensated for growing fatigue and the frequent absence of top scorer Diego Costa due to injury by focusing on defence, recording eight clean sheets and five 1-0 wins between January and May to secure the trophy.
Chelsea under Conte have scored 38 goals in the 17 Premier League matches since switching to a dynamic 3-4-3 system in September — more than any other team in the division — and he insists they have no reason to alter their approach in the final months of the campaign.
“I don’t know about this situation, and I don’t want to comment on previous seasons,” Conte said of Mourinho’s title-winning team. “That’s not good. No, we must continue to play in the same way, and continue to play our football with our positive and negative situation, to try and improve our negative situation and to continue to play our football.
“I don’t like to start to think: ‘Yes, in this game, a draw is good, and this game is good to win.’ That’s not the right way, for sure. In my experience, it’s important to fight game by game, to win each game.
“If you do that, you find the right concentration and don’t look too far [ahead]. It’s important to look at the present. Tomorrow we have a really important game [against Arsenal]. If we are able to win, we take three points and put three points on our table. That’s the really important thing now.”
N’Golo Kante will be a focus of attention for Saturday’s match after Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admitted that he twice looked at signing the France international midfielder, from Caen and from Leicester City, before his £30 million move to Chelsea last summer.
The 25-year-old is bidding to become the first footballer since Eric Cantona to win consecutive league titles in England with two different teams and has been a transformative factor in Chelsea’s revival, making a season-record 14 successful tackles in Tuesday’s 1-1 draw with Liverpool at Anfield.
Conte, however, is adamant that Kante is not the only reason why Chelsea are back at the top of the Premier League.
“If it were so simple, every team would pay £100m for N’Golo [this summer] and would be sure to win the title. If football were so simple, I’ll try to keep him for our whole life in Chelsea and we’d be sure to win the title every season.
“First of all, we didn’t win the title this season [yet]. I hope we have at the end of the season. For sure, if this happens, for N’Golo it would be a great achievement for him.
“N’Golo is playing very well. I think, in the last game, he played in an outstanding way. I’m working also with him to improve him.
“I think he can improve a lot still, to try to look always forward, to try and play forward. In this situation he can improve. But he’s a fantastic guy. He’s humble. It’s very important.
“He wants to improve and show he deserves to play with Chelsea every game. That’s fantastic, this. He wants to improve in every game.
“But I don’t trust in the theory that you can win only because of one player. That doesn’t happen. Ever. Win, draw or lose, the team is together. I’m sure about this.”
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