Antonio Conte was asked about a number of issues at his press conference ahead of Sunday’s trip to Middlesbrough. Here’s some of what he had to say.
“I have all the players available. [Diego] Costa had a bit of an injury after the game against Everton and he started to train with us on Wednesday.
“His physical condition is good. There is also tomorrow to see perfectly the situation but at the moment he can play.
“Eden [Hazard] had a tackle but he recovered very well. Cesc [Fabregas] now is in a good shape, he’s available for Sunday.”
“For me it’s a great pleasure and honour after three months to receive this award. It’s fantastic.
“It’s important to share this award with my players and also with the staff, because this award is for the work of all of the team.”
“I’m pleased for him because I think he’s playing fantastic football. He’s working very well during training sessions and showing great attitude, great commitment. I think he’s a fantastic player.
“In this moment, he’s a great player above all because he’s working a lot for the team. I think it’s fantastic when a great player with this type of talent put this talent in the team.”
“It’s important now that Eden is showing his talent and is playing very well. To compare him with the other players is not right in this moment.
“He has all the potential to do great things in his career. Now, it’s important that he’s putting himself in the team. It’s the best situation for us.”
“I said after the game against Everton that it was a pity to stop our run for the international break. But it’s important to find very quickly the right way to continue the way we left before the international break.
“This week we are working to find the right concentration, the right focus, to restart in the right way.”
“First of all, I see a great opportunity this year to build something important with Chelsea, a new method, a new philosophy. This is the most important thing.
“Then, it’s logical when you play in this championship you want to fight until the end for the title or a place in the Champions League, but for me now it’s too early to talk about this. I said this in the past, I remain of the same opinion.
“It’s important now to continue to work with the players and to continue to build something of importance for Chelsea for the present and for the future.”
“Steve Holland is a great professional and is my assistant coach at Chelsea. I’m pleased to have him for his work, for his commitment.
“Steve now is focused for Chelsea and is working very hard for us, for the club. Then for the future, I don’t know the decision of the FA – I don’t want to go into this decision.”
“I think in the last games we played good football and we showed great compactness. We didn’t concede a goal, we scored many goals, we created many chances. I think we found a good balance and this is very important.
“This system, this formation, I think is a good fit for this squad. I see the players and I’m very happy to play with this formation.”
“John is in a good shape and he can play in this formation. He can play, easily.”
“I’m happy to have this availability of the central defenders. It’s important now that Kurt is with us, in the training sessions.
“It’s normal when you arrive after a bad injury, you need a bit of time to recover your best form and for this reason we prefer Kurt in this period to play games with the Under-23s. On Monday he will play with the Under-23s.
“It’s important to have game time in this period. It’s fantastic to have available another good player, like Kurt Zouma.”
“You must understand very quickly the differences. This league is very tough. Every game anything can happen, because in every team there are a lot of good players, with quality, with a great technique and speed.
“For this season, you have to play with high intensity if you want to win. We must stay always with great concentration from the start until the end. I’m trying every day to push my players to explain this but they know this. But it’s important to repeat this concept.”
“Oscar’s future is Chelsea, full stop. For me he is an important player in the squad. It’s logical that I have to pick the starting XI every week but Oscar is a great player and for me he’s staying at Chelsea.
“It’s important to arrive at this message. Oscar will stay with us. I repeat, I consider him an important player for Chelsea.”
“We have a complete squad. It’s normal during the season that there is some injuries but we have a good squad to have some substitutions if there is some injuries.”
This post was last modified on 16/12/2016