"I told you, Tony, that guy is going to surprise you! I've watched Leicester's first few games and his substitution has been insane.

Whoever the manager is, it would be a crime not to put him in the starting line-up in this situation......"

As the game entered the half-time period, Leon, who walked into the tunnel side by side with Kroos, made no secret of his admiration for N'Golo Kante.

Kroos nodded subconsciously, after all, in the first half of the game, he also suffered enough from Kante's tackle.

Leicester City did give Chelsea's players too many "surprises" in today's game.

A combination of capable strikers, a steady and resilient back, and a balanced midfielder.

Combined with Claudio Ranieri's new tactical system tailored to this team, all these factors combine to make Leicester's transformation seem so magical.

And the Premier League fans who watched the first half of this game have to take the initiative to subvert the stereotype of Leicester City in their hearts at this moment.

Which is the strength of a middle and lower relegation team?

They can play Chelsea for a full 45 minutes, and they look like they have the quality to threaten the Chelsea defence!

Don't say anything, it's not that you can't beat Chelsea.

Now even if this Fox City can't beat Chelsea and Manchester City, it's not enough to clean up other mid-to-lower Premier League teams?!

It seems that the pattern of the top six in the Premier League is about to undergo another turbulent reshuffle.

Liverpool didn't take the opportunity to stay in the Champions League last season, rushing up and falling again.

Southampton and Swansea City are one move away from making it to the European zone for two consecutive seasons.

Now these three teams can't help but return to the middle of the table, but before Tottenham and Everton have had time to rejoice, Leicester City has sprung up again.

However, this slightly chaotic and unexpected competitive situation is exactly what more neutral fans of the Premier League are looking forward to.

Orderly rankings and competition are not interesting at all.

In recent years, Premier League fans have probably enjoyed the Premier League games of the season when Leon and Mourinho first joined Chelsea.

Because at that time, Chelsea represented a rebellious challenge force, and they did succeed in overturning the inherent domination of Manchester City in the Premier League that season!

Of course, Chelsea have now replaced Manchester United's dominance and they are no longer the favourite challenge team for neutral Premier League fans.

Leicester City are limited by their financial resources and influence and look impossible to replicate Chelsea's path to success.

But this does not prevent the grassroots from rising, and they are likely to gain the support and preference of more and more neutral fans in the future.

As long as they continue to maintain their current growth potential, they are destined to make a place in the Premier League in the coming seasons.

However, the current Leicester City has not yet reached the peak of squad strength after all.

They can cause Chelsea a lot of problems, but it's still too difficult for them to win against Chelsea.

Jose Mourinho was not too stressed in the dressing room at the moment, paying attention to Leicester's attacking counterattack in the second half.

He just asked his attacking players to try to avoid sticking too much to the ball in midfield.

That's the utmost respect for N'Golo Kante's excellent performance today.

Lao Mu spoke, and no Chelsea main player dared not listen.

After the start of the second half, Chelsea's attacking midfielders, including Leon, increased the number of shots on the ball.

Eden Hazard also stopped dribbling too much, and like De Bruyne, he began to drop back frequently to receive the ball in midfield and involve the Leicester City backline.

Mourinho also looked at N'Golo Kante with interest when Chelsea changed their attacking style of play, wanting to see how well the black midfielder could read the game.

Even though Kante's sweeping sweep in midfield had attracted his interest, he was still greedy to see Kante's ceiling further.

Just as he worked tirelessly on the training ground many years ago to tap into Leon's offensive and defensive potential.

This thrill of digging deep into the "treasure" fascinates Mourinho.

As for the fact that N'Golo Kante still belongs 100% to Leicester City?

This is even more of a trivial matter~

It's already October, and with the 2016 winter window just a few days away, neither N'Golo Kante nor Leicester City can turn down a sincere offer from Chelsea if he sees fit.

It really can't be done, and when the time comes, it will be enough to loan Van Ginkel and Loftus-Cheek, who still need more game experience in the team, to Leicester City.

Mourinho now just wants to know clearly whether Kante is worth his shot!

The French midfielder's interest in the opposition manager was completely unexpected.

He is now looking for ways to help his midfield partners and even his team-mates at the back take the pressure off the defence even further.

His style of play is very "black and hard", but his mind is very smart and flexible.

Unlike many of his midfielders from Africa, N'Golo Kante still likes to use his brain to think and read the game.

Physicality and tackling skills are his strengths, and underneath that superficial strengths, he also has a talent for position and defensive anticipation that is close to Leon's.

So when Chelsea overhauled their attacking style and used the pass more to involve the Leicester backline, Kante only adapted a little and changed his defensive model.

His pitch runs still cover a vast area, but now he's more of a defensive anticipation to force Chelsea's attacking 'receivers'.

Yes, it's the potential receiver and not the receiver.

Such defensive changes do not directly improve N'Golo Kante's defensive efficiency in terms of statistics, but they are very effective in delaying Chelsea's longitudinal passing attempts.

Quite simply, N'Golo Kante is a good runner and he can bet on a Chelsea pass forward with a number of seemingly blind pressing options.

However, Chelsea's attacking players did not want to bet on N'Golo Kante's erratic interception ability, let alone give Leicester the opportunity to switch between attack and defence and play on the counter-attack.

Even with the addition of more lateral reeling passes, Chelsea were able to secure some dangerous passes and tear through Leicester's backline with ease.

But it's clear that N'Golo Kante has delayed Chelsea's overall attack on Leicester City and he has done the best he can now!

After seeing Kante's quick change of defensive style, Mourinho sat in the coach's seat and slapped his thigh fiercely, as if he had made some important decision!

However, more neutral fans on television did not see what N'Golo Kante had done to his team.

They just watched the short black midfielder run tirelessly on the pitch.

Time and time again, inefficiency has pressed Hazard and Suarez, Chelsea's threatening attacking players up front.

In the end, Leicester City still failed to withstand Chelsea's offensive pressure, and in the 78th minute of the second half, the defense was torn apart by the passing and running connection of Leon and Suarez!

However, this time it was not Leon who passed the ball and Suarez stepped forward to run, but Suarez, who retreated to receive the ball, sent a beautiful diagonal through ball to Leon!

This contrasting style of play made Leicester City's defenders very helpless.

After Li Ang successfully got a single chance against offside, he hit a far-corner shot very simply.

And Schmeichel Jr. was also beaten to a temperless point and didn't touch the football spinning in the air at all.

Leon's marksmanship has improved a lot compared to last season.

In terms of seizing opportunities, Li Ang is also becoming more and more a "cold-blooded shooter".

Now, of course, he can't do the level of shooting that he has.

But he basically scored all the goals that should have been scored, and there were very few mistakes, which is already quite a remarkable performance!

With a two-goal lead, Chelsea switched to a defensive stance that contracted across the board.

Claudio Ranieri brought on two strikers in the last minute to give it a go, but in the face of Mourinho's big line-up, Leicester City could only hate their home stadium in the end.

The score is not big, but the gap between the two teams in terms of strength is quite obvious.

However, Leicester fans are not frustrated and they are satisfied with a respectable performance against Chelsea.

After the game, Leon took the initiative to find Kante, who played very well today, exchanged shirts with him, and gave him a friendly hug of encouragement.

It's just that this shy guy still has a little problem with his English pronunciation now, and he obviously said thank you to Leon, but it has become the international "greeting" in the ears of others around him.

As soon as Drinkwater heard Kanter's pronunciation, his face changed in an instant, for fear that Leon would misunderstand.

As a result, Leon laughed and waved his hand to signal that he heard clearly, and jokingly said to Kante:

"In the future, if some reporters with bad intentions interview you, you will greet him directly, and then issue a statement saying that he heard it wrong, which is an excellent reason~"

Leon's easy-going generosity put N'Golo Kante and the rest of the Leicester players at ease.

However, when Leon left satisfied, and Mourinho took the initiative to praise Kante for playing very well today, the eyes of a large number of reporters on the sidelines suddenly lit up!

However, Mourinho did not show too much enthusiasm for Kante alone, and he also hugged Vardy and Mahrez, who also played well today, and seemed to be "non-discriminatory".

As for what news reports the reporters will write tomorrow, Mourinho doesn't care~

While handing Leicester City their first defeat of the season, Chelsea also continued to put pressure on the leading Manchester City.

However, Manchester City's performance in the new season is indeed very good and solid, and they beat Crystal Palace 3-0 in this round of the league to still sit firmly at the top of the Premier League.

It seems that this year's Premier League will be decided as soon as possible, and it will be an endurance battle between two monster teams.

After this round of league games, Chelsea and Manchester City once again ushered in the challenge of the Champions League group stage.

Compared to Manchester City's home game against Sevilla, Chelsea's trip to Moscow is much more "difficult".

In late October, the temperature in Moscow at night has reached below zero, and the coldest time is almost -10 degrees Celsius.

This extreme cold combined with the artificial turf at CSKA Moscow's home stadium was a great test for the Chelsea players!

Fortunately, this is not the first time Mourinho has led his team to Moscow, so the Chelsea coaching staff is very well prepared.

Li Ang also kept telling his teammates before the game that they need to pay attention to the game.

But it was only when the night started that the rest of Chelsea's main players understood what the difficulties and troubles they were up against.

Playing on artificial turf, which was full of hoarfrost, was not a problem for CSKA Moscow's players, but it greatly limited Chelsea's overall technical advantage.

In order to be able to get as many points as possible at home, the players of CSKA Moscow are also very combative, and they have worked hard in terms of scrambling and confrontation.

Leon adapted quickly, and he already knew how he should fight his opponent in today's match.

At the suggestion of him and Mourinho, the players in Chelsea's midfield decisively gave up their plans to organize calmly and directly picked up the old tactics of the Premier League team.

Long pass rush hanging!

CSKA Moscow was already playing very directly today, but they didn't expect Chelsea to play more directly than they did!

Leon almost used himself as a tactical center, that is, the pestle to hold the ball high in the front court, and then find Suarez or other teammates in the running position.

Such a simple offensive tactic is very practical and easy to use today.

Chelsea's other attacking players were able to use the energy they had saved more on attacking CSKA Moscow's backline.

In the 28th minute of the first half, Suarez received a cross from De Bruyne and successfully scored!

Just eight minutes later, Leon also swung his header back from a set-piece in front of the pitch and assisted Kroos to push home at the top of the box to extend the lead!

But just as the whole Chelsea team wanted to take advantage of the win and gain more goal difference, Hazard sprained his ankle in a counter-attacking confrontation.

This kind of terrible injury situation came to the door, and it instantly made the whole Chelsea team feel bad!

Jose Mourinho cursed the freezing weather in Moscow at night, but quickly made tactical adjustments to signal the entire Chelsea squad to slow down.

Mohamed Salah came on as a substitute for Eden Hazard and played more carefully.

Chelsea spent almost the entire second half in defence.

CSKA Moscow also scored a goal from set-pieces in the 83rd minute of the second half.

But with Mourinho's decisive last-minute change to two defenders, CSKA Moscow's set-piece play no longer worked.

Chelsea thrashed CSKA Moscow 2-1 and Lisso's third successive win in the Champions League group of death!

However, with Eden Hazard's unexpected injury, a conundrum has been raised for the Chelsea coaching staff.

That is, in the following tight schedule, which one should Chelsea pay more attention to in the league and the upcoming EFL Cup quarter-finals?

However, Mourinho was quick to give his answer.

Mourinho continued to field the majority of his starting XI for the 10th Premier League match against West Ham United on 24 October.

This basically means that Chelsea are giving up the EFL Cup on October 27th!

Faced with such a decision by their own coaching staff, Chelsea fans have expressed their understanding and support.

After all, the team's bench thickness is far less than last season's, and there are not too many veterans in the substitute line-up, so how far can young players go in England's two domestic cup competitions?

And with Eden Hazard's unexpected injury, Chelsea's main squad now needs more detailed protection and rotation.

Chelsea have been in a much better season than they have been in their third year at Real Madrid.

If you want to complete the great cause of three consecutive league titles and the Champions League defense, you must abandon the burden of playing decisively!

For now, at least, Mourinho is in his clearest mind, and he and Leon have led Chelsea down the same old path.

A championship path that they have successfully walked before!

(End of chapter)