Antonio Conte has become the first manager in Premier League history to be awarded the manager of the month award three times in a row.
To mark the occasion, the Chelsea boss posed with the award and 10 of his backroom staff, including his brother Gianluca and former goalkeepers Carlo Cudicini and Henrique Hilario.
The Italian boss oversaw victory in each of his side’s six games in the final month of 2016, with Manchester City, West Brom, Sunderland, Crystal Palace, Bournemouth and Stoke all beaten by the league leaders.
The award for December comes on the back of previous successes in November and October, fuelled by a winning streak of 13 consecutive league wins for the Italian and his team.
The three prizes puts Conte in the record books and also see him draw level with another former boss at Stamford Bridge – Jose Mourinho – and he has collected his personal accolades in just five months.
Mourinho took over from Claudio Ranieri, a five-time winner, at the beginning of 2004, but had to wait until March 2007 to pick up his third, and amazingly still his most recent, Manager of the Month award.
The lack of recognition has irked the current Manchester United boss throughout the years, and in Rob Beasley’s book last year – Jose Mourinho, Up Close and Personal – it was revealed the Portuguese was convinced there was even a campaign preventing him from picking up the award.
Beasley wrote that Mourinho asked him: ‘Do me a favour, try to (find out) who decides that s*** Manager of the Month.
‘I don’t care (about) that s*** but till the end of November I was, from day one to the last day, top of the league and zero defeats. (But) I didn’t win in August, September, October or November!
‘The last one was (Alan) Pardew – lost in November against West Ham and I won all, including Liverpool away and drew at Sunderland. This isn’t normal!
‘I need to know who are the people? Four years in Premier League, two titles, two seconds and I won manager of the month twice eh, eh, eh.’
While Conte has already caught up with his United rival, he still has some way to go to catch those at the top of the manager of the month hall of fame.
Ranieri is the next former Chelsea boss and current top-flight coach in the Italian’s sights with five awards.
Of the current crop of Premier League bosses, only Sam Allardyce on six, David Moyes on 10 and Arsene Wenger with 15 have more than Ranieri.
But all still have a mountain to climb when compared to the man at the top of the list, Sir Alex Ferguson.
During his time at Manchester United the Scot collected 27 Premier League manager of the month awards to go alongside his 13 league titles.
[Daily Mail UK]
