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Chelsea legend Dennis Wise has questioned Antonio Conte’s decision to sell striker Diego Costa to Atletico Madrid, claiming they would have beaten Everton yesterday if he was playing.
When asked on Sky Sports why they’re not performing to the same levels as last season he said: “Costa – a horrible centre-forward who nicks goals.
“Today you see the three guys, they want to come out wide and deep.
“Costa battles and makes defenders make mistakes. That’s what Chelsea miss.
“Someone like a Costa might have got them a goal and it would have been a different game.”
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Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson is backing Chelsea to beat Brighton 3-0 when they meet on Boxing Day.
He told Sky Sports: “Brighton did well on Saturday (in beating Watford 1-0), they just do not put their chances away.
“I watched them against Burnley when they should have been two or three up, but missed a penalty, drew 0-0 and were hanging on at the end.
“On Saturday they had chance after chance to kill the game, while Chelsea were unlucky against Everton, let's be honest, they should have won.
“Brighton have got bigger games over Christmas than this and you will find some teams will rest players for bigger games.
“With three games coming up really quickly, you are not going to put all your first-team players out in this game, get beat 3-0 and then they are all tired for the big games coming up.”
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Chelsea manager Antonio Conte wants the Real Madrid job, according to journalist Ian McGarry.
“I think he wants the Real Madrid job,” McGarry told The Transfer Window podcast.
“We will see this Saturday morning when Barcelona play Real Madrid, 11 points behind them in the La Liga title race.
“If Barcelona turn over Real Madrid, the pressure will be massive on Zinedine Zidane.
“For Florentino Perez [Real Madrid president], the last thing he wants to do is sack an icon of his famous club and I think a sacking will not take place.
“It will simply be a word in his ear 'it's time to go Zinedine', because the players are not responding to you, or the training isn't good enough or whatever the reasons are behind that misfiring squad.”