Chelsea‘s tremendous October has landed monthly awards for Antonio Conte and Eden Hazard. The former picked up the Barclays Manager of the Month prize, while the latter was awarded EA Sports Player of the Month. The club confirmed the awards on their official website on Friday.
Conte held off competition from Stoke City’s Mark Hughes, Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, and Arsenal’s Arsène Wenger to land his award. The Italian steered Chelsea to a perfect October, which saw them win all four Premier League games without conceding a single goal. These victories included a 3-0 thumping of champions Leicester City and a 4-0 mauling of José Mourinho‘s Manchester United.
Following a winless September, the manager switched to a 3-4-3 system, and this paid huge dividends. Chelsea haven’t put a foot wrong so far since the modification in tactics, and also started November with a 5-0 win over an in-form Everton side. Their next Premier League is against Middlesbrough this Sunday.
Conte has won his first Manager of the Month award just three months into the job at Stamford Bridge. He becomes the sixth Chelsea manager to claim it after Claudio Ranieri, José Mourinho, Avram Grant, Carlo Ancelotti, and Rafael Benitez.
His main man, Eden Hazard, picked up his award as well, after being voted the best player for October. The Belgian winger scored 3 goals and assisted 1, being an instrumental figure throughout the month. After a lacklustre campaign last season, Hazard finally looks like he is back to his best. He was voted the PFA Player of the Year in 2015 after leading Chelsea’s title charge that year, and he will look to do so again this time around.
His supreme confidence is personified in the following video, as he thanks the fans for voting for him, before saying that he’ll be back to pick up next month’s awards as well.
Congratulations Eden Hazard! The @ChelseaFC star is the @EASPORTSFIFA Player of the Month for October pic.twitter.com/vu3wCiccsx
— Premier League (@premierleague) November 18, 2016
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