The Conte Code 3-4-3: I

In the last premier league game between Chelsea and Tottenham, we saw how Pochettino's team pinned Chelsea back to their own half in the first half hour of the game. This, many pundits attributed to the success of Spurs' counter tactics of deploying the trio of Son, Kane and Dele Alli who continuously pressed the three Chelsea defenders (Azplicueta, Luiz and Cahil) and this made it very difficult for the Blues to build from the back. Spurs' game plan was working to perfection until Pedro's goal cancelled out Eriksen's strike to level things up for the home side.

Typical of Spurs, their system collpased in the first fifteen minutes of the second period which Chelsea took full advantage of to go in front through a Victor Moses strike. Had Chelsea not equalized in the first half, you would expect Pochettino's men to go into the second half and stick to their game plan and maybe grab the second vital goal . If this had happened, we would have heard pundits talking about how the 3-4-3 Conte's tactics Code was broken. Nevertheless, the Chelsea boss would have gone back to his tactics board after the Spurs game to find out how he would stop the 3-4-3 Code from being broken in his side's next match against Man City. Even though City provides a more difficult test than Spurs, it is not possible for City to press Chelsea in the same manner as Tottenham because the Etihad side do not have the requisite personnel to do so.

The prove of the difficulty in breaking the Conte's 3-4-3 Code is the successful application of its like, the 3-5-2 in the ever tactically competitive Serie A. No doubt, the 3-4-3 Code will be broken in time to come, but it will be as hard as anything you could think of.