Watford 1-2 Chelsea: Antonio Conte's tactical changes win the game for Chelsea AGAIN!

For the second game running Antonio Conte has influenced the outcome with his tactical substitutions as Chelsea came fighting back from a goal down to beat Watford 2-1.

It was a massive result for Chelsea on Saturday at Vicarage Road and important that we continue to build on the good start we had made against West Ham. Following on from that game, Conte made just a single change to the team that started at Stamford Bridge a week ago as Pedro came in for the injured Willian (The team: Courtois, Ivanovic, Cahill, JT(c), Azpi, Kante, Pedro, Oscar, Matic, Hazard and Costa). 

Now you all would have seen the highlights from the game, read numerous reports about the game from Pundits to the Press, other Chelsea Bloggers and so on, so I won't go into too much detail about the game itself, but I want to refer to some things that happened in the game instead.

Branislav Ivanovic: 

Why on earth is he still playing? He cannot cross a ball to save his life and he kept giving the ball away in the first half. Why isn't Ola Aina starting on the left and Azpi down the right?

Pedro:

He's got to do so much more than he has done so far in a Chelsea shirt! Where is the player we used to sit and watch in La Liga week in, week out? I want to see him take people on for a change.

Diego Costa: 

It's all well and good to moan that you feel you are being picked on by Referee's after the West Ham game but to go and do it again by mouthing off for the second game running is ridiculous and someone needs to have a word with him.

He has come up with two important match-winning goals for Chelsea so far and has demonstrated just how important to us he is going to be this season. If we are to put a realistic challenge together we need him on the pitch.

I won't even talk about the dive on the edge of the box either! The Pundits on Match of the Day got it right when he was described as "from the sublime to the ridiculous". Antonio have a word!

Cesc Fabregas:

What an impact from the bench and what a pass to Costa for the winner. It's only when you see the TV angle from behind the goal looking down the pitch that you see just how good it was. Surely he has put himself right into Conte's plans ahead of Oscar who, despite working as hard as he does, he couldn't ping a pass like that!

Antonio Conte:

This guy has balls doesn't he! I love the fact that he is not afraid of making a big decision before AND during the game. The fact that in both games he has decided to go for the win and attack the opposition is fantastic rather than settle for two draws.

Pace: 

We would be foolish to come away from this one without admitting that we got away with that one. For the most part our play was too pedestrian, too slow and laboured and it's when we attack teams at pace that we cause them the most problems. I was concerned that we had slipped into the routine we had to sit and endure throughout last season but to the Manager's credit he mixed things up.

We must do better!

Conclusion:

Another win, another demonstration of the hunger from the Manager and hopefully the players will follow as we move from game to game. We definitely got away with this one but that's a good sign.

Onwards and upwards!

Carefree & KTBFFH