What a month it has been for the Blues! After a sublime Premier League winning streak of six games without conceding a single goal, Chelsea’s Eden Hazard and Antonio Conte have both been awarded the monthly accolade for their magnificent performances.
The 25-year-old winger has returned to his very best after a horrendous last season, and netted three goals and provided one assist during the October’s four wins over Hull City, Leicester, Manchester United and Southampton.
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
This is the first time Hazard has won the Premier League’s monthly award, and is the fourth Belgian to claim the prize after Manchester United’s Marouane Fellaini, Tottenham defender Jan Vertonghen and Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke.
Thank you for voting for me, see you next month for the same award. It’s good, but at the end the most important is to win the season.
Without my team-mates I am nothing. We did well this month and I hope we can continue like this.
Hazard attributed his improved form to a more single-minded approach in front of goal.
People said I didn’t shoot enough. Now I try to shoot and score every game when I’m on the pitch. Before I was thinking about the last pass to make an assist, now I can do it myself.
– Eden Hazard, Premier League
Antonio Conte was also awarded his first award on his Premier League career, as the Italian was voted October’s Manager of the Month after leading Chelsea to four successive victories.
Your October @BarclaysFooty Manager of the Month is… Antonio Conte!
Congratulations to the @ChelseaFC boss pic.twitter.com/F9hAvSJ6VY
— Premier League (@premierleague) November 18, 2016
He’s the sixth Chelsea manager to win the accolade after Claudio Ranieri, Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benitez, and the league’s fifth Italian to claim the prize after Ranieri, Ancelotti, Roberto Di Matteo and former Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini.
It’s a great honour and I will share this with my players and the club. It is the first time I work in another country with a different culture, and when you want to bring your own philosophy it is not easy, but now I am glad for this choice.
– Antonio Conte, Premier League
And if that wasn’t enough for the lot of you, Diego Costa’s terrific long-range effort against Southampton was also chosen as the goal of the month! Get in!
