Simplicity the Key to Chelsea's Title Charge as Conte Puts Guardiola in Shade

Just like with his products, the pre-eminent industrial designer Dieter Rams likes to edit his working practice of any superfluousness. His most oft repeated design principle decrees: "Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better. Back to purity, back to simplicity."

A temptation to overengineer ideas is no different in football than it is in design. The best managers are like the best designers in knowing when a concept or product is fully realised and needs only titivation.

Of all the Premier League managers, Chelsea coach Antonio Conte has proved the most astute in adhering to a less-is-more mindset. Mauricio Pochettino comes a close second. Both are innovators that look to strip back rather than add unnecessary detail. As a result, the two best-drilled teams in the Premier League are by some distance Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur. On this occasion, the table really doesn't lie.

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VIDEO: Antonio Conte's priceless reaction when he heard that Tottenham made a comeback against Swansea! https://t.co/viJsNPwM4M pic.twitter.com/r9A9GO1oap

— Premier League (@EPLFeed) April 6, 2017"

Conte is wringing every last drop out of a group of players who, to a man, know exactly what their respective roles are. It was exactly the same with Leicester City last season. Conte has set a target of six more wins for Chelsea to be crowned champions on the back of Wednesday's defeat of Manchester City. For all Spurs' manful resolve, the midweek action seemed seismic. Open-top bus vendors had quotes in the post to west London on the final whistle.

Spurs can take consolation from the fact this will surely be the campaign when St Totteringham's Day becomes an occasion of remorse rather than baiting for Arsenal supporters, after 21 consecutive seasons as north London's top dogs. Arsene Wenger and his players have finally been neutered.

There is precious little that is jaw-dropping about the way Chelsea play. It's all a question of taste. For many there is a glass ceiling to the pleasure that can be derived from watching this Chelsea side. For some, they are a Brutalist eyesore, a grey concrete slab of a team that however imposing lacks the intricate splendour of a Guardiola side, or even at a push (a big push) one under the guidance of Wenger. 

There is beauty in simplicity, though. Aesthetically, there is zero fat to them. It's all clean lines and minimalist sheen. At times Chelsea work out how to cut through teams with the ease of that weird kid at school who could complete a Rubik's cube in less than a minute.

They move the ball from back to front with the intensity and speed of an ambulance attending an emergency. They can get a patient to hospital before Jose Mourinho's Manchester United have worked out how to turn the siren on. It can look simple when within two passes David Luiz has popped a ball to N'Golo Kante or Cesc Fabregas, and then via a solitary angled touch, Eden Hazard is somehow bearing down on goal. 

It's anything but. It's just brilliant design on Conte's part. Less (passes), but better.

Form follows function in that they are essentially set up to get the best out of Hazard. Getting the ball to your best player is such a simple concept, but it's been expertly executed.

Mourinho last season, in what proved an annus horribilis for both him and Chelsea, became obsessed with making the Belgian a more rounded player. Burdening Hazard with defensive duties, though, is akin to having a Michelin star chef at your disposal and asking them to cook oven chips. When he didn't track back properly, Mourinho dropped him.

Conte still demands Hazard plays within a team framework, but his responsibility is very much to create rather than destroy. The shackles are off, and the results speak for themselves.

Of Hazard's 13 Premier League goals, seven have come against sides in the top seven. Less flat-track than fat-cat bully. Last season he looked disorientated and distracted, a horse without a jockey. This term under Conte, he heads into the final straight in a two-horse race with Kante to win the various Player of the Year gongs.

When he gets back to help, as he did pretty astutely at times in midweek, it seems to be of his own volition. How as a player could you not hanker after the approval of a manager on the sidelines that makes Kante look a little slack in his work rate? The Italian is more infectious than bird flu.

It's not just Hazard he's transformed. All over the pitch, Chelsea's players owe him a debt of gratitude. He's made David Luiz a proper defender. He's made Victor Moses one of Europe's best wing-backs. He's made Marcos Alonso the same. He's made Gary Cahill a real leader. He's made Cesar Azpilicueta a centre-half craved by Barcelona. He's made Pedro the player he was at Barcelona. He's made Kante even better. He's made Nemanja Matic believe in himself again. He's made Diego Costa forget about his lifelong China dream to score the goals that will win Chelsea the title.

Conte often talks of his teams suffering. He did it again on Wednesday night, when Chelsea spent the majority of the game on the back foot to a Manchester City side no strangers to suffering for their art either.

Pep Guardiola pointed to squandered opportunities at full-time, and he had a point as Sergio Aguero and John Stones each had a pair of presentable opportunities in the second period, but it's nearly always controlled suffering with Chelsea.

It's often of their own design. Conte will have been happy to let City boss the ball and hit them on the counter-attack, content to lean on the ropes and conserve energy. City might have the prettiest wife at home, but Chelsea definitely have the smartest. 

Guardiola is an entirely different beast to Conte. If he were Henry Ford, the first motor vehicle would still be on the cusp of production while he tries to work out a way to make it float. Ask him to whittle a toothpick out of a lollypop stick and he'd come back six months later with a miniature canoe. Conte would hand you a toothpick before you'd finished whatever you were chewing.

By his own admission, Conte rarely sleeps before matches and has an almost pathological capacity for work. He may never switch off, but he has shown himself capable of channeling such energy without being convoluting to the point of confusing when dealing with his players. It's an affliction not uncommon among managers, even the very best.

It was evident on Wednesday. At one point City midfielder Fabian Delph glanced across to the touchline to see his manager wildly gesticulating in his direction—hands moving as quickly as his mouth. The midfielder looked as if he had asked for directions in a foreign city and was immediately regretting it.

For the first time since the most significant game of the season—on that fateful day on September 24 when Conte switched to a 3-4-3 at Arsenal after Chelsea went in at half-time 3-0 down—personnel changes were made to his back three. Prior to the visit of City, in the 23 Premier League matches Cahill, Luiz and Azpilicueta had played together since, they had proved the most in-tune trio since the Supremes. Some 59 points had been taken from the 69 available, courtesy of 19 wins, a pair of draws and just two defeats.

It's tempting to conclude necessity proved the mother of invention at the Emirates, but it probably does Conte ill-service given three at the back has been a calling card throughout his career.

Moses' injury and Pedro's subsequent struggle at right wing-back against Crystal Palace necessitated a need for Azpilicueta to shuffle across and Kurt Zouma to come in at centre-half.

By half-time, Conte had seen enough. Even though Chelsea were winning the game, he said, per The Independent's Miguel Delaney: "The first half was very open, chances for one side and then the other. Usually I don't like this happening."

Matic replaced Zouma as defensive equilibrium was restored via Azpilicueta returning to his spot in Chelsea's back three. A clean sheet was kept in the second half; job done after he returned to his original design.

Guardiola has yet to unearth a tried-and-tested formula he can fall back on. Still, even his most devout acolytes must have questioned a decision to play Jesus Navas at right-back. On the substitutes' bench, Pablo Zabalata wore the look of £5 million striker Jon Macken when in 2005 then-City boss Stuart Pearce, chasing a goal against Middlesbrough, elected to bring on David James up front ahead of him.

When pre-match Hazard learnt who would be marking him, he must have checked the dressing room for hidden cameras, bracing himself for Rio Ferdinand to leap out from BT Sport's studio to excitedly exclaim: "You've been merked!"

Alas, for Manchester City supporters, it was not the ghost of Jeremy Beadle haunting Stamford Bridge, but the work of a brilliant (if flawed) footballing mind as complex to figure out as the multiple zips on the most famous coat in football.

Guardiola's decision to hand Delph a first Premier League start of the season and Vincent Kompany a first start since January is par for the course. Employing Kevin De Bruyne as a No. 8 is another bone of contention among the club's supporters. Don't even get them started on Joe Hart and the goalkeeping situation.

All season Guardiola has proved the antithesis to Conte. He's yet to name the same City side in consecutive matches. They must have used at least half a dozen formations over the course of the campaign. Chelsea, in contrast, have never deviated from 3-4-3 since the Arsenal game. No Premier League manager makes so many changes to his starting XI as the Spaniard, none so few as the Italian. Less (changes), but better.

Still, it's hard not to fall at least partially in love with some of the football City have played this season, at least in an attacking sense. Certainly media briefings around the game proved a full-on love-in between the two managers.

Conte was in full flirt mode post-match. When discussing Guardiola he said, "he really is the best." He was returning a compliment, with City's manager a day earlier having said of Conte, "maybe he's the best." Get a room. 

At times, Guardiola's sojourn in Manchester has brought to mind Le Corbusier's quote about New York: "A hundred times have I thought New York is a catastrophe and 50 times: It is a beautiful catastrophe." 

In fairness, catastrophe would only be apt if Manchester City failed to finish in the top four, with Guardiola having recently claimed securing a UEFA Champions League spot in England is the equivalent to winning a trophy elsewhere. From football's greatest romantic it feels a little sad, but then perhaps a little pragmatism will be no bad thing.

It's been a sobering campaign. Wednesday marked the first time he has ever been beaten by the same manager twice in a season, while he's never lost six league games in a solitary campaign either. This is also the first time in his career he has not made at least the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Guardiola is right when he makes the claim "details in the box" were the difference in both games against Chelsea. According to Opta, City have converted just nine of 26 clear chances against fellow top-seven teams. They have a significant better conversion rate in terms of shooting themselves in the foot.

That's not an insignificant issue to address, though, as a 14-point gap between them and the summit will attest. Ever the pragmatist, Conte gave his own droll assessment: "The difference is that we won the game and they lost the game."

There's no doubt City look very close to being a very a good side. However, having collected just three points from the last 12, they are in danger of being a very good side playing in the Europa League next season. Arsenal and Manchester United are both now just four points shy of City having played a game less.

Guardiola provides an illuminating parallel because he is so intrinsically different to Conte. He is, though, just one of 19 Premier League managers to have been outperformed in Conte's debut season in England.

His man-management has been exceptional, especially when taking into account his English is not yet at the level he would like. "In Italy, for me, honestly, it was easier to find the right words to motivate my players," Conte said on Thursday. "Here, I'm studying English, but I'm not at a great level to give motivational talks."

Perhaps he does his linguistic skills a disservice. History suggests it might take a fair bit of nuanced reasoning to keep John Terry, Fabregas and Costa from making their influence felt when disgruntled. Issues with all three have been dealt with via Kissinger-like diplomacy.

Terry seems happy enough being only a furry head away from replacing Stamford the Lion as the club's official mascot, while Fabregas looks as enthused as he's been since Chelsea's title win in his first season back in England.

The schemer has had his grumbles about being at odds with a game that prioritises athleticism over artistry, but he has looked less weighed down of late—both in a literal and metaphorical sense.

Matic will be glad of the breather a recall for Fabregas will provide, even if Kante is probably already jogging on the spot in preparation for Saturday's trip to Bournemouth. Figuring out what is going on in Costa's head is a task Freud would balk at, let alone a football writer.

In comparison, Mourinho's borderline masochistic "tough-love" posturing looks hopelessly clumsy, while Wenger adopts the wearied look of a stepdad being given the runaround by a pair of sulky teenagers whenever Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil are the topic of conversation. Guardiola's issues with some of City's biggest names have been well documented, too.

There's no doubt in relation to Conte another Rams doctrine rings true: "You cannot understand good design if you do not understand people. Design is made for people."

Antonio Conte, it seems, is made for Chelsea.