The Premier League season of 2016-17 was supposed to be a fight between the world’s best managers. Pep Guardiola had made the grand entrance to Manchester City with his biggest foe and Chelsea’s former manager Jose Mourinho taking over the reigns at Manchester United. With Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham coming close to winning the title the previous season, big things were expected of them too. It was Jurgen Klopp’s first full season at Liverpool and Arsene Wenger had always been present among the elite.
However, it was a former Juventus manager with three league titles that stole the show that season. Antonio Conte took over Chelsea after leading Italy to the quarter final stage of Euro 2016. Conte was praised for his tactical masterclass in that tournament after beating Spain in the round of 16 and and only missing out on the semi-finals after a penalty shootout defeat to Germany.
The Italian came to the Premier league to embrace a new challenge and to show the world that he can make his methods work outside Italy, and he certainly did that.
Conte may have had little time to look at his team and the tactics he could bring about, considering he was involved with Italy in the Euros before the beginning of the season. He did not immediately change to his best formation, preferring to choose a style of play depending on the players at his disposal.
He did manage to earn some close wins against Watford and West Ham earlier on in the season but it was obvious that the team definitely needed a change. However, it was the team’s consecutive losses to Liverpool and Arsenal after the international break that triggered the change.
In the match against Arsenal, in particular, with the team being 3-0 down at half time, Conte thought it was time to stamp his authority and he reverted to 3-4-3 in the second half. After that game, the team went on a 13-match winning run in the league which helped them clinch their fifth Premier League title in a brilliant fashion.
His tactical change was so influential that many teams within the division started adopting it. In fact, even Gareth Southgate used a similar formation with three at the back for England in the 2018 World Cup. It was more of a 3-5-2, something Conte tried to adopt, albeit with less success, in the last campaign. Guess he should have stuck with the 3-4-3 formation only.