After a disastrous title defence last season, Chelsea would want to turn the tables this time around. They have hired a world-class manager in Antonio Conte. Their squad is full of top quality players who seemed to be lacking confidence for large parts of last season.

Antonio Conte, fresh from an impressive outing with Italy in the Euros would want to take Chelsea back to the top of English football.

The Londoners start their season against a strong West Ham United at Stamford Bridge.

Performance in the transfer market

Chelsea have made a couple of very promising signings. They have signed N’Golo Kanté, arguably the best central midfielder last term for a fee of £32m from champions Leicester City. Seeing Diego Costa’s erratic form last season, they have also signed the highly rated Belgian forward Michy Batshuayi from French outfit Marseille for £33.2m.

Romelu Lukaku has been heavily linked with a move to Chelsea. It remains to be seen if anything happens before the end of the transfer window.

With John Terry in the twilight of his career, Conte might be interested in adding another centre-back in the team. Kalidou Koulibaly, Shkodran Mustafi and Victor Lindelöf are the ones linked with the Blues.

How will they line up?

Although Conte has experimented with a 4-2-4 formation, he might end up playing with the reliable 4-2-3-1 instead.

Thibaut Courtois is set to start in goal ahead of Asmir Begovic. John Terry might start in central defence with Gary Cahill if the Blues do not make any signings in that area. Kurt Zouma provides good competition for a place in the XI.

New signing Kanté is set to start in the middle of the park alongside Nemanja Matić. Cesc Fàbregas and Oscar are set to fight it out for the #10 role.

Eden Hazard and Willian will surely be the wide men for the Londoners. Diego Costa and Batshuayi are set to battle for the striker position.

But you can be assured that if some of these stars continue to under-perform, Conte wouldn’t be afraid to give the other top talents like Pedro, Cuadrado, Moses, Traoré, etc. a chance.

Who are the key men?

Eden Hazard when in full flow is one of the best footballers on the planet. His form would be very important in shaping Chelsea’s fortunes this term.

N’Golo Kanté would want to start from where he left off last season. His influence in the middle of the pitch would be huge for Chelsea.

Young players to watch out for

Ruben Loftus-Cheek would be looking to break into the Chelsea XI this season. He looked impressive for Chelsea at times last season and has also featured for Conte in preseason.

Although he’s loaned out, Andreas Christensen is highly rated by football experts. It will be interesting to see how he develops at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Fans’ expectations

Chelsea fans would want to put the nightmare of 2015/16 beyond them and look forward to a strong title charge this season under the guidance of Antonio Conte. The Blues would surely want to win the FA Cup and/or the EFL Cup during the Italian’s first season in charge.

Conte’s no nonsense attitude means that the Chelsea players would be made to work really hard to meet the high standards that he expects from his team.

Given Conte’s success in Italy, there is no doubt that Chelsea would be a force to be reckoned with this season.

Image Courtesy: Goal