Antonio Conte has hailed Chelsea's work ethic after they recorded a fourth straight clean sheet in their 2-0 victory at Southampton.
Goals from Eden Hazard and Diego Costa ensured Chelsea left St Mary's with all three points on Super Sunday.
Chelsea
are yet to concede since switching to three centre-backs, having been
dispatched 3-0 by Arsenal the last time they lined-up in a 4-4-2
formation.
Conte's side now sit in fourth place in the Premier League - just one
point behind leaders Manchester City, who are ahead of Liverpool and
Arsenal on goal difference.
"I'm very happy because I saw great
commitment and work-rate during the game from all the players, with and
without the ball," Conte told Sky Sports "This is the right way
to play, because when we work together against a very strong team, I
think that I as the coach must be very happy after this performance."
"It's fantastic that for a fourth game we did not concede a goal, and
also we scored two goals and created many chances. We are working very
hard."
Following Chelsea's 4-0 win over Manchester United last
week, Conte refused to admit his side were title contenders, and the
Italian remained equally coy after their latest win.
"I have the
same opinion," Conte added. "Now it's early to answer and speak about
title contenders, I repeat that we must work very hard to continue
because this is the right way, but we can and must improve.
"After the first part of the season I can tell more about this run."
"We
played against United and scored early as well, but when you play away
it's different because the home support push the team, but our
supporters were saying great things.
"They were fantastic from the
first minute until the end. I want to say thank you to our support,
from me and my players, because we won this game together - the players
on the pitch, and the supporters as well."
