Last season, Eden Hazard endured arguably the most difficult time of his career. After a brilliant 2014/15 campaign, the Belgian failed to replicate the qualities that earned him the PFA Player of the Year award. Hazard’s struggles led to him being dropped by manager Jose Mourinho in October, with Mourinho’s replacement Gus Hiddink then describing
Antonio Conte could be about to bolster his midfield with the acquisition of Fiorentina midfielder Milan Badelj. Who is he? The midfielder is a 27 year-old Croatian international, having impressed at Euro 2016 over the summer. He occupies the central midfield position and is a reliant and consistent passer of the ball and his
Charles’ latest “The Mind of Conte” column. Chelsea’s 3-4-3 formation was put to the test against Southampton over the weekend, and once again passed the test with flying colors. Since switching from 4-3-3 to 3-4-3, Chelsea have kept four clean-sheets in a row and scored eleven goals in the process. Here are my talking points
When Chelsea were humbled at the Emirates not too long ago, things were looking bleak. The shape was all wrong, players were not performing up to their usual high standards and the defence was being cut open like a knife through butter. Antonio Conte realised he had the task of his managerial career so far.
Although their EFL Cup defeat at the hands of West Ham came as a blow, Chelsea will be pretty happy with the start that they have made to life under Antonio Conte. Top teams are always looking to strengthen their squad, however, and recent reports in the Daily Star suggest that the Blues are interested
Charles’ latest “The Mind of Conte” column. Following the most impressive wins from the men in blue against Leicester City and Manchester United, here are some thoughts on what stood out to me. Dynamic front three Conte’s front three is in many ways reminiscent of the Malouda, Drogba, Anelka trio that led Chelsea to
Chelsea. Leicester City. Who played for Chelsea? Who played for Leicester City? And who played for both? Created by Sporcle Check out their website for more fascinating quizzes Follow them on Twitter @sporcle Like O-Posts on Facebook You can also follow O-Posts on Twitter @OPosts
If the bookmakers were making the odds before last season happened, Chelsea would be huge favorites to beat Leicester City. The top football tips today still have the Blues are the favorite but if they are going to win, they will need to match Leicester for aggression and desire. These two things are what has
It only seems like yesterday that Sir Alex Ferguson was the manager of Manchester United. He still remains to be the longest serving manager in the history of the Premier League [27 years], closely followed by Arsene Wenger who has been at Arsenal since 1996. The injection of money from endorsements and TV deals has
Charles’ latest “The Mind of Conte” column. Following back to back defeats in the Premier League against fellow top 4 contenders in Liverpool and Arsenal, Antonio Conte vowed to look for solutions to address his team’s recent form, or lack thereof. As a result, the Italian manager setup his team in a brand new formation
Chelsea FC. Tottenham Hotspur. Two intense rivals with plenty of animosity surrounding the two whenever they clash — especially from their supporters. Despite that, there were players who did play for both clubs. Who were they? Created by Sporcle Check out their website for more fascinating quizzes Follow them on Twitter @sporcle Like O-Posts
David Luiz One part of the infamous Nemanja Matic merry-go-round, Luiz joined Chelsea from Benfica for around €25 million in January 2011. It’s fair to say the reputation he would garner throughout his career was evident when he made his first start. Although it was a 0-0 draw against Fulham, an underwhelming result in itself,
Charles’ latest “The Mind of Conte” column. Any Chelsea fan watching the home game vs Burnley would have gone away from it buzzing with excitement. This was the most comprehensive performance we’ve seen in over a season. While all players deserved to be praised for the overall performance, two of them stood out to me:
The 2016 summer transfer window has unconventionally turned out to be one nostalgic reunion party in most of the major leagues around Europe. Alvaro Morata returned to the Bernabeu, Mario Gotze to the Yellow Wall, but perhaps the one that hogged all the headlines was Paul Pogba’s return to Manchester United- which made him the
After netting just four Premier League goals and putting in a number of inept performances last year, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard was a shadow of the player who romped to the PFA Players’ Player of the Year and the Blues’ Player of the Year the season before. However, with Antonio Conte taking over the managerial reins
The debut installment of a brand new column about everything Chelsea-related titled “The Mind of Conte” by Charles Codo. Following much excitement, speculation, and anticipation, Antonio Conte has finally coached his first games in the English Premier League, home against West Ham and away to Watford. Following last season’s horror start, Chelsea fans will have
Chelsea have been associated with heavy spending ever since Abramovich took over the club in 2003. Such massive outlays helped propel the Blues to the pinnacle of European club football and are now considered among the continent’s elite sides. Can you name each and every Chelsea signing from their 2014/15 campaign? Created by Sporcle
Antonio Conte joined Chelsea with the idea to use a variation of the 4-4-2 formation, which he had previously adopted at Siena and Bari. Last month, Oscar revealed the following in an interview with the Mail Online: “The idea is to play 4-2-4. We tried this every day in training - we’re getting better.” Indeed,
It is not often that a player makes the return to one of his former clubs. However, this season could see the end to that buck. Paul Pogba has now broken the world transfer record to move back to his former club Manchester United, from Juventus. It seems like massively overpaid training in hindsight. It
The 2016-17 season is nearly upon us, and as we’re gearing up with great anticipation, here are a few takeaways from Antonio Conte’s first three games in charge of Chelsea. Team shape Many questions have been asked about the shape Antonio Conte would employ at Chelsea, and based on what we’ve seen so far
Portuguese midfielder Andre Gomes has officially been unveiled by Barcelona after completing a €35 million switch from La Liga rivals Valencia. The 22-year old- who was formally introduced during a short ceremony at Barcelona’s mini Estadi- becomes the club’s fourth signing thus far after the acquisition of: David Suarez from Villarreal, Samuel Umtiti from Lyon
Borussia Dortmund have confirmed the acquisition of German international Andre Schurrle from Bundesliga opponents Wolfsburg. Although an official figure is yet to be released by the club, reliable sources in Germany depict the transfer to be around £26.9 million or €32 million, making him Dortmund’s most expensive signing of all time. The 25-year old becomes
Napoli full-back Elseid Hysaj has been the subject of much transfer speculation this summer with Chelsea one of the clubs said to be looking at the talented Albanian. The right back has four seasons of first team football under his belt in Italy in addition to 20 international caps so he already has quite a
2016 has definitely been the year to remember for N’Golo Kante. From a fairytale story of winning the league title with the underdogs to reaching the Euro finals, Kante had it all. The driving force in Leicester City’s league triumph and said to be one of the best in his position, the midfielder then decided
Arsenal came out the blocks quickly and just 4 days in, signed Granit Xhaka who is a great midfielder as well as the fairly unknown Takuma Asano. The signings of Eric Bailly, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have shown Manchester United mean business. The likely signing of Paul Pogba for a reported £100 million would