Antonio Conte won the league in his first season in England. 9 months later, he finds himself in a no-win situation, and perilously close to the axe.
Chelsea has come in for a fair bit of criticism after facing Barcelona and Manchester City without a striker. Much of it was deserved. However, I found it curious that no contrarian voices emerged. After all, the Blues came up against two of the top two teams in the world and earned a 1-1 draw against Spain’s runaway leaders and lost by one goal to the greatest attacking team in the history of the Premiership.
Taking points off of City and Barca this season is a near impossible task. It is the footballing equivalent of the Kobayashi Maru test. For the uninitiated, the test comes from the Star Trek universe. It is a training exercise for Starfleet cadets. In it, the cadet must decide between saving a disabled starship while violating Starfleet policies and risking almost certain death or leaving a disabled starship while violating Starfleet policies and leaving it to almost certain death. It is a no win scenario designed to observe the character, not the ability, of the cadet.
In the official Star Trek canon, only one cadet managed to beat the test: James Kirk. When questioned about it, Kirk simply quips, “I don’t believe in no win scenarios.” Neither does Antonio.