Chelsea boss Antonio Conte relishing first taste of Boxing Day football

Conte says “for this reason, it’s a good test for us”.

Lampard visited the Chelsea training ground on Wednesday to rendezvous with former team-mates and meet up with Conte, and it was there he told the Blues boss he’s not ready to hang up his boots just yet.

“Whether they’re ready to play we’ll wait on”.

They’ve played with each other multiple times for England’s youth teams right up to the U21s age bracket and are seen as potential England caps of the future.

N’Golo Kante and Diego Costa are suspended for the game against Bournemouth. That first night in Turin, he and (Didier) Deschamps took the ball off me more times than I care to remember.

The manner in which they beat Manchester United (4-0), Everton (5-0) and Manchester City (3-1) was not only hugely impressive from a neutral’s perspective, but also served as an illustration as to how Conte has reignited the spark in every Chelsea player.

Chelsea beat Crystal Palace 1-0 on Saturday to stretch their lead at the top of the table to seven points and equalled a club record for consecutive Premier League wins. “We won it two years and the two years that we won it, we were out of the cup competitions”.

“To arrive at Christmas and open the newspaper and see you are top of the table is fantastic”. It is hard to adapt in this league because it is a very tough, strong and physical league.

Arsenal set a record for the most wins within a single Premier League season (13) and the most successive wins in the history of the English top flight (14) as they romped to a second league and FA Cup double under Arsene Wenger. Another win over Stoke City at Stamford Bridge on December 31 would mean the Blues equal the record for a single season of 13 set by Arsenal in 2001-02.

“Because the squad was the same as last season’s”. Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. Conte intends to hold talks to the technical director, Michael Emenalo, and the player before determining whether he should seek to gain first-team experience away from Stamford Bridge over the second half of the season.