Antonio Conte: Former choir boy has turned Chelsea into genuine Premier League contenders
It's breathless watching the Italian who has seen his side go 10 hours without conceding
THE baseball cap he briefly donned in the second half might have ruined his Sunday best.
But yesterday was more proof that churchgoer Antonio Conte has smartened up Chelsea’s act, turning last season’s sinners into potential title winners.
And the fact the devout Catholic has got his Blues to the top of the table is nothing to with his pre-match prayers.
No, it is his meticulous managerial methods that have his disciples singing off the same hymn sheet.
Pictures emerged this week of the Chelsea chief as a ten-year-old altar boy in his southern Italian home of Lecce.
And Conte went on to reveal some of his religious rituals, which include sprinkling holy water on the pitch before games.
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But he would be thrown out of church if he behaved in God’s place like he does in — and out — of his technical area.
For seeing Conte relentlessly stomp up and down the touchline for 90 minutes gives just some insight into what he must be like back at Chelsea’s Cobham HQ.
It is breathless just watching him, so goodness know what it must be like for fourth official Craig Pawson, whose job it was to try and keep him in check.
Yet his passion has clearly got through to his players, who are beginning to look as organised and disciplined as they did in the good times under Jose Mourinho.
Ever since he touched down at Stamford Bridge in the summer, Conte’s mantra has been “work”.
And it is hard work that has got the Blues to the summit.
Chelsea have not conceded in almost ten hours of Premier League football.
And Conte will feel like he has played every minute of that six-game clean-sheet run given the kilometres he must clock up.
The ex-Juventus chief’s heat map would probably put Boro striker Alvaro Negredo to shame.
And should his Chelsea coaching staff suffer any hearing loss in later life, they may well have a case for industrial deafness.
Only when Diego Costa gave Chelsea a 41st-minute lead did Conte momentarily stop barking and bellowing at his poor players. Yet normal service was soon resumed and there was no let-up until referee Jon Moss blew for full-time to signal job done.
Conte’s opposite number Aitor Karanka also spent the entire match stood outside of his dugout.
But while the Spaniard has also been known to have a touchline temper, his antics were nothing compared to his fellow Latino.
Then again, this was a game Karanka was expected to lose.
Right now, the Middlesbrough manager is just glad to be sharing the same turf as the likes of Conte.
Yesterday’s match marked his three-year anniversary in charge on Teesside — the fifth-longest tenure of the current top-flight bosses.
And this kind of occasion was exactly what Karanka dreamed of being a part of when he took over at the Riverside in November 2013.
Back then playing Chelsea in the Premier League, live on Sky in front of a bumper home crowd, seemed a long way off.
Boro were 16th in the Championship, just five points above the bottom three and Karanka’s first game was a 2-1 defeat at Leeds.
Only 23,679 were inside the Riverside for his home bow — a 1-0 victory over Bolton.
But the 32,704 that were packed in yesterday for the Blues’ first league visit here in eight years is evidence enough of the sterling work Karanka has done here.
The ex-Real Madrid coach now faces his toughest test of keeping Boro, who sit just one point above the drop zone, in the top flight.
Yet, despite yesterday’s setback, it will not take a miracle to do so.
Nor do Conte’s Chelsea need divine intervention to go on and claim the title.
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