Chelsea coach, Antonio Conte, has been rewarded for his side’s exceptional run of results with the Premier League Manager of the Month award for October award.
Belgian playmaker, Eden Hazard, was also named Player of the Month.
Conte, who is in his debut season in the English topflight, masterminded an impressive turnaround in fortunes for a side who won only a point in September, guiding them to four successive top-flight victories in October.
Among those results was the stunning 4-0 win over former manager Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United side, a victory which has helped the Blues climb into the top four.
The basis for this was a tactical tweak to a 3-4-3 formation which has brought 11 goals, four clean sheets and a maximum return of 12 points.
“It’s a great honour and I will share this with my players and the club,” Conte said on Friday.
“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.”
The 47-year-old thus becomes the sixth Chelsea manager to win the award after Claudio Ranieri, Mourinho, Avram Grant, Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benitez, and the fifth Italian, after Ranieri, Ancelotti, Roberto Di Matteo and Roberto Mancini.
He saw off competition from Liverpool’s Jurgen Klopp, Stoke City’s Mark Hughes and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger.
Among those results was the stunning 4-0 win over former manager Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United side, a victory which has helped the Blues climb into the top four.
Under Conte, Hazard has rediscovered the form that saw him crowned PFA player of the year in 2015
The 25-year-old grabbed a goal in the victories over Leicester, Manchester United and Southampton in October and followed up that goalscoring form by netting a brace in the 5-0 win over Everton earlier this month.
Hazard told Chelseafc.com: “It means a lot. 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.”
Next up for Conte and Hazard is an away trip to Middlesbrough on Sunday.
