“We’re top of the League!” - Antonio’s 3-4-3

It’s quickly becoming the most wonderful time of year, when with the nights starting earlier and earlier even the 3 o’clock kick offs turning into floodlit games, and balls that are neon yellow instead of the traditional white. It is also the time of year where the league tables begin to take shape, and this year it’s shaping up to be one of the tightest title races in Premier League history. The form side, without a doubt, are Chelsea. 7 league wins on the bounce, complete with 19 goals and 6 clean sheets in a row before last weekend, and that’s without going into the glorious detail of explaining the manner of those wins and the way in which we played. All this after a switch of formation from 4-3-3 to 3-4-3 by Antonio Conte, and one that has seemed to have taken the league by storm, and become the new formation in vogue.

Pedro celebrates his goal within 30 seconds against Man United by jumping into the Matthew Harding Lower

Kanté’s Inferno

With the Premier League season rapidly coming to its second week, it’s an exciting time for any football fan, but it feels particularly good to be a Chelsea fan. A new manager, with a new system and style of play, and two vital new signings; all this makes for a desperately needed breath of fresh air into a squad that was stunningly stale in the worst title defence in the Premier League era last season. And as shown on Monday night, things are seemingly coming into fruition, with all the aforementioned new things at the club slotting into place almost perfectly from the off.

Antonio Conte celebrates with the Chelsea fans after Diego Costa's late winner on Monday night

King Power: Leicester City’s Astounding Season

“Foxes Never Quit” is the motto emblasoned above the King Power Stadium tunnel, glanced upon by the likes of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez before running out and performing in the manner they have done this season. The motto, it’s been shown, is clearly apt. All season, the entirety of Football had expected Leicester to fall away, yet they didn’t. It seems that those Foxes, in fact, do not quit; indeed, they have managed to outfox all the teams in the Premier League bar one: that one being Arsenal, one of two teams to have beaten Leicester in the League, and the only to have done the double over them. However, Arsenal managed to outfox themselves out of Title contention, and only their North London rivals Spurs had any hope of catching Claudio Ranieri’s side, and those were ended by Ranieri’s old side Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Champion status not only guarantees Champions League football, but also Top Seed status in the Group Stage draw. All this means that Europe’s Elite are returning to the East Midlands for the first time since Brian Clough’s famous Nottingham Forest side won the European Cup twice in a row in 1979 and 1980. Comparison with that Forest side has been common this season, and isn’t that far off the mark. Forest are the last English side to win the First Division the season after being promoted from the Second, a record that doesn’t look like being changed in the modern era; Leicester this season is possibly the closest thing we’ll get to that in the foreseeable future.

Claudio Ranieri and Wes Morgan lift the Premier League trophy after their last home game, a 3-1 win over Everton

The Future of Football Tactics

The number 10. For many, this is just a simple number, like any other. For a football addict such as myself, the first thing that crops to mind, rather than times tables, are trequartistas. Only a football fan can describe a number nine as false. The triggering of some sort of OCD when anyone but a left back wears the number 3 on their shirt. Yet this obsession with numbers stems from something far more complicated than squad numbers or numeracy: the world of the football tactic. Football is often like the world of fashion; things are often in vogue and then back out very rapidly. Nothing more so than tactics. A successful formation that is truly original stays so for a very short period of time, before admirers and rivals take ‘inspiration’ and copy it, sometimes improving upon it, but often never getting close to the original. When the next sure-fire way to win crops up, it’s out with the old and in with the new. There are numerous examples of this, such as the libero of European football. The sweeper has not been used commonly by big clubs since the early to mid-90s, with the back four far more common. In the modern game, a back four is almost a given, albeit the manner in which it is used (flat back four or wingbacks, low or high block, etc) changes, it’s what is ahead of this that is the interesting bit.