Chelsea 3-0 Newcastle United: 5 Talking Points

#1 Farewell Conte?

Conte is clearly not in good terms with the Chelsea board

The result against Newcastle United will not have any implications on Antonio Conte's future at the club, that is pretty obvious. However, if you look at the bigger picture, there is clearly a sense of detachment between the Italian and the Chelsea board at this point of time.

Chelsea played a total of 47 games last year, during Conte's triumph in the league in his first season at the club, in stark contrast to their extremely packed set of fixtures this term that has already seen the Blues play a whopping 39 games across 4 different competitions.

Conte has put down the blame for losing ground on the title race to Chelsea's inability to compete with their rivals in terms of transfer market activity and believes that the current set of players are forced to play week in, week out due to the club's fragile squad depth.

Chelsea cruised to victory but there was little excitement on Conte's face, the fire that he had in his eyes when he first came to England is dying and so is his commitment at the touchline.

If the Italian dares to look ahead, Chelsea have a daunting task at their hands in the form of Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League, with Premier League games against the two Manchester clubs sandwiching between their round of 16 ties against the runaway La Liga leaders.

In all honesty, it could be make or break time for Antonio Conte