Sunday 30 October 2016 13:16, UK
Danny Higginbotham analyses Chelsea's 3-4-3 formation and explains why it suits both their attack and defence...
"Chelsea have changed their system for their last three games, won three times, kept three clean sheets and scored nine goals.
"They've gone to 3-4-3 and it's been fantastic for them. That's because it suits a lot of the players.
Attack
"When they played with a 4-2-3-1, we found at times Diego Costa being quite isolated in the forward areas. The likes of Eden Hazard, Willian and Pedro weren't able to get up to him quick enough and he found it difficult.
"But now Costa, who loves to get in among the two centre-backs, when he wants to, can drop off into deeper areas and that gives those centre-backs a real problem. Do they go in with him? If that happens, Hazard and Pedro can look to get in behind. And that's something they've done really well.
"Yes, Diego Costa is a fantastic centre forward but he's been getting more support in recent games.
Defence
"N'Golo Kante is a huge player for Chelsea and we're starting to see now a player producing more of the types of performances we saw at Leicester City.
"Earlier in the season, when they were playing four at the back, Kante was in between the two centre-backs, not really doing anything. Now, because Chelsea are playing with a back three and wing backs, the defence isn't getting outnumbered and Kante can play that little bit higher up the pitch. We saw him score against Manchester United last week.
"Kante is very good at looking after the centre-backs and he did that very well at Leicester last season. But it was different in a way, because Leicester weren't a team concerned about having possession of the ball. It was ok for him to drop deeper because of the play was in that area. But Chelsea are more of a possession-based team than Leicester and you want to see him higher up the pitch.
"That's what we're seeing now. We've seen his darting runs forward but he also stops the opposition before they get out of their own half."
