Antonio Conte hails Diego Costa as one of world’s best strikers

Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Edwin Van der Sar’s record of not conceding a single goal during a nine-game winning streak contributed massively to United’s Premier League championship.

Diego Costa’s goal proved the difference as the Blues beat Middlesbrough 1-0 at the Riverside Stadium to go top of the league at the end of a match week for the first time since they won the league in May 2015.

The Premier League’s most effective attacking player, though, is not a striker. It was forward Diego Costa who scored the game’s lone goal during the second half of the game, marking his tenth of the season.

“He’s always a point of reference for his team-mates”. He is impressive in the way he is finding his goals, and it is important to continue this way because we need his goals.

“Is he focused just on his football?”

A home date with Tottenham this weekend will be followed by a journey to Manchester City on December 3.

Chelsea are a point ahead of second-placed Liverpool after their sixth successive Premier League victory. It will be something new to the Chelsea pair, but I think they will be ready for it. As recently as late September, Conte was counting the cost of back-to-back defeats against Liverpool and Arsenal in a week that seemed to rule out any title push regardless of how early into the campaign we were.

What Conte’s side have developed which is now giving them a vital edge over their rivals in the title race is synergy and momentum.

However, one of the failures of previous seasons is repeating itself and giving a genuine reason to be pessimistic (and change opinion).

We’ve selected some of the player stats from matchday 12 to see how closely you were watching.

Conte’s men face London rivals Tottenham on Saturday – one of the teams Conte believes are in the running to win the league.

We are on a good run – we took a point from Arsenal, should have maybe won the game; a great win at home here against Bournemouth; a draw against Manchester City and unlucky today, so we are on a good run. “In this League it’s important to have intensity and strength as well as good technique”.

In as great form as we now are, it’s important to stay focused and take every game as it comes, and that’s exactly what David Luiz has told to the rest of the team.

Meanwhile, Adam Traore was Middlesbrough’s biggest threat throughout and one positive run at the visiting back three allowed Antonio Barragan to cross for Negredo, who headed just wide.

“Playing against a team like Chelsea, we knew it would be tough”, said the Boro head coach. Costa started playing better toward the end of last season, after the departure of Jose Mourinho, but the striker is now back at his best and is showing it by leading the scoring race.