MIDDLESBROUGH, England -- Antonio Conte praised his Chelsea players for winning "in a different way" after the Blues beat Middlesbrough 1-0 at the Riverside Stadium to go clear at the top of the Premier League.
Diego Costa's 10th goal of the season was enough for Chelsea to earn their sixth straight league win since Conte's decision to switch to a 3-4-3 formation, while at the other end Thibaut Courtois recorded a sixth consecutive clean sheet.
Victor Moses and Pedro Rodriguez both missed good chances to make the game safe, and after the match Conte singled out his team's resilience and composure in the face of Middlesbrough's second-half pressure as key to the victory.
"I'm pleased because today we won a game in a different way if you compare it to the last five games," Conte said. "Today we won only 1-0 against a strong team with good organisation.
"I'm pleased because in the moments where we must suffer, we suffered, but we never lost our compactness.
"We created chances to score the second goal and against this team it's important to score the second goal to kill the game, because until the end anything can happen in this league.
"After two defeats against Liverpool and Arsenal, for sure it wasn't simple to believe [we would have] six wins in a row and without conceding any goals. I'm pleased for this because it's very difficult to have this success in this league. It's fantastic."
Costa consolidated his position as the Premier League's top scorer and produced another exceptional all-round display to lead Chelsea to the win, while avoiding the fifth yellow card that would have ruled him out of next Saturday's clash with rivals Tottenham.
"Diego is always important," Conte said of Costa. "He's the point of reference in our attacking and together with Eden and Pedro he played a good game today. It's impressive how he's finding ways to score a goal. It's important to continue in this way because we need his goals.
"In the past you asked me about Diego's behaviour, his reactions, his passion. Now I think he's one of the best strikers in the world. He has to continue showing his passion, but in the right way. He's very focused on the game and scoring a lot of goals."