Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has been awarded the Premier League Manager of the Month gong for October, while his winger Eden Hazard picked up the Player of the Month accolade.
Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, Stoke’s Mark Hughes, and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger made up the rest of the nominees but it was the Italian that pipped them to the award.
The Blues got off to a shaky start under their new boss but a change to a 3-4-3 formation has seen a remarkable turnaround in performances.
In October, Conte guided Chelsea to four wins out of four against Hull City, Leicester City, Manchester United and Southampton.
Conte’s side didn’t concede a single goal in any of the matches, while they hit the back of the net an impressive 11 times.
Congratulations to Antonio Conte who has been named October’s Barclays Manager of the Month! 👏 pic.twitter.com/NqiSVFew1Y
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 18, 2016
The Blues are now sitting pretty in second place in the Premier League standings and are only a point off current leaders Liverpool heading into this weekend’s fixtures.
As it’s the Premier League award, Chelsea’s loss to West Ham in the EFL Cup wasn’t considered when choosing the winner.
Meanwhile, Belgium international Eden Hazard won the Player of the Month accolade after scoring in Chelsea victories over the Foxes, United and the Saints.
“It means a lot,” Hazard, who beat off competition from the likes of Tom Heaton, Joe Allen, Ilkay Gundogan and Philippe Coutinho, told chelseafc.com. “We played a very good month. I scored a lot of goals and all the team played well. We scored a lot of goals and we didn’t concede a goal.
“I’m the best player this month but the most important thing is at the end to win the league and to do that we have a lot of things to do from now until then.”
'It means a lot.' – @hazardeden10 https://t.co/Ejlfk6IzTx pic.twitter.com/OUW0QRJjTt
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 18, 2016