Conte and Guardiola meet again

As we have changed. In 2016, both Antonio Conte as Pep debuted in the Premier League. One in front of Chelseathe other heading to Manchester City. The first confrontation between the two came at the beginning of December, when the Italian visited the Catalan in the northwest of England. Pep was going around with his team, alternating schemes and players. He had a hard time hitting the key, but Antonio fiercely broke into his Anglo-Saxon adventure. Gary Cahill, own goal, put the locals ahead in the Etihad Stadium. The Londoners had no problem turning the score around. Goals from Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Willian added a new victory to a list that Chelsea ended up extending to thirteen. All of them consecutively. A streak with which Conte secured the Premier League title.

“His impact was immediate,” he recalled. Guardiola on Friday about that 2016-17 course. “Many teams started playing with a defense of five when before they always played with four. Conte arrived and the world of football copied and pasted his methods. Everyone wants to play like the coach who wins. He made his mark in this league.”

Both coaches arrive in very different situations on matchday 26 of the Premier League. In five years, Pep Guardiola has made many of the coaches of the rest of the English clubs pay attention to him. the care you received Conte after his first course is now for the ex of the Barcelona and Bayern. Not in vain is guiding Manchester City to their fourth league title in five years. Go to another crossroads Antonio Contewhich will return to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, but as manager of Tottenham. The Londoners are in another fight, who add 27 points less than the leader and are eliminated from Europe.

The Italian landed to try to straighten the course of a club that has been tumbling since the start of Mauricio Pochettino. Conte Nor has it followed the calmer path in recent years. Chelsea kicked him off the Stamford Bridge bench in 2018 after knocking the club out of the Champions League and despite winning the FA Cup. He returned to his country where won Serie A with Inter Milan, but after a series of disagreements with the Nerazzurri board he got off the boat. He did not go on to defend the title. It’s clear when you don’t like something, and the latest example showed it just this week. In an interview for Sky Italy, Antonio Conte made his opinion clear about Tottenham’s winter transfer market: “We have weakened rather than strengthened.” Three defeats in a row in the league seem to prove him right and complicate the task of getting the Spurs on Europe.