Revealed! Reasons behind Antonio Conte’s decision to drop Chelsea’s creative king for Liverpool clash

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte played down the effect of his tactical decision to leave Cesc Fabregas on the bench in favour of summer signing Danny Drinkwater for the Blues clash on Saturday with Liverpool FC.

The Italian tactician decided to start summer signing Danny Drinkwater from the beginning along with French duo of Tiemoue Bakayoko and N’Golo Kante in middle for Chelsea at Anfield, despite Cesc Fabregas having been in impressive form recently.

Antonio Conte then decided to introduce Cesc Fabregas on late on in the match and the Spain international midfielder helped to bring in some creativity into the side, as Brazilian Willian’s late goal cancelled out Egyptian Mohamed Salah’s opening goal.

The Chelsea boss was quizzed after the game about his decision to leave Fabregas on the bench for the match, and Antonio Conte offered a number of explanation in his post-game press conference.

Talking after the match at Anfield, Antonio Conte said he only decided to rotate his squad because of the heavy festive period schedule, to prevent fatigue.

He noted that Fabregas played every match from the beginning of the campaign because Bakayoko and Danny Drinkwater were injured.

The Blues are in the third spot in the English Premier League log as they get set for their home game against Swansea at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday.