A blog of two halves

It’s the time of the season when eccentric results start to raise eyebrows and cause pairs of glasses to be removed, cleaned and replaced.

Well, now we’ll see what Tony Conte is really made of.

The Blues host Palace on April Fools’ Day after the irritating international break, and Chelsea have a quiet determination not to let the visitors make them look like dipsticks.

Chelsea may be runaway Premier League leaders, but they are also firing on all fronts when it comes to cup football.

Spurs marksman Christian Eriksen and his teammates spent Saturday glued to the telly to see how the Blues would fare at Stoke, seemingly confirming it’s now a two-horse race between Chelsea and Tottenham for the title.

Tony Conte has been busy damping down the excitement and trying to keep his players focused and grounded as the FA Cup clash with Manchester United looms on Monday.

A cold, windy and potentially fractious outing awaits Chelsea fans on Monday as they travel to that lonely outpost, the grandly, blandly titled London Stadium, to face West Ham.

The mouth-watering prospect of an FA Cup quarter-final fixture against the Once-Special One at the Bridge can wait.

So we beat Hull, drew with the Scousers, thrashed the Gooners then took a point at Burnley.

While football writers salivate over Eden Hazard’s goal-scoring wizardry, the distillation process that determines who should eventually be dubbed Chelsea’s player of the year is already underway.