2017/18 Pre-Season Briefing - part one
Here we go again! Ahead of the season opener at Wembley on Sunday, club historian Rick Glanvill and club statistician Paul Dutton look back on the summer ins and outs and forward to Antonio Contes second year in charge.
Welcome back, you champions, you. Seems like only yesterday everyone was cavorting in the sun celebrating another wonderful league title success.
But the pages of the football calendar must keep turning, and Chelsea are about to embark on our 83rd season in the top flight, the 29th in succession.
Excitingly, the Blues are contemplating becoming the Premier League's first carry-on campiones for almost a decade. The last club to defend the title successfully were Manchester United in 2009. Chelsea do have a precedent, though, having achieved the feat impressively in 2006.
For that to happen again will require a substantially more rigorous title defence than in 2015/16, and that is just one of the fresh challenges head coach Antonio Conte faces in his second campaign with the Azzurri of west London.
Conte's remarkable maiden season success was founded on exceptional improvement through hard work. In fact, over the past two seasons Leicester City and Chelsea won the title by making remarkable year-on-year points upgrades of 40 and 43 respectively.
No-one is expecting the Blues to repeat that sensational, record-equaling 13-match winning streak, because no season unfolds the same as the one preceding it.
But do not rule it out: the Italian made a habit of exceeding expectations in successive campaigns while in Turin.
Inevitably, some of our champions have departed since the same time last year, and this is the first squad in many, many years not to benefit from the presence of the captain, leader, legend that was John Terry.
Also bidding a permanent farewell were John Mikel Obi, Branislav Ivanovic, Oscar, Asmir Begovic, Nathanial Chalobah, Nathan Ake, Bertrand Traore and Nemanja Matic. We thank them and wish them the best of luck.
The new arrivals and loan returnees are covered below, but a standout feature of the incoming Alvaro Morata, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Antonio Rudiger, alongside youth, skill and pace, is height: all three measure 6ft 2in or more.
Already last season Chelsea were the most effective in the Premier League at set-plays – most goals scored (22), second fewest conceded (seven) – but perhaps Conte has identified room for improvement.
Title defenders benefit from flexible thinking of the kind for which Conte is renowned.
There is no doubt the switch to three at the back in the second half at the Emirates eventually swung the pendulum in our favour, but the tactician may innovate to stay ahead of the pack.
We know he favoured 4-2-4 last summer. Perhaps the new personnel will permit him to experiment again.
He has had the Asia tour to imbue new ideas in his squad. And remember the transfer widow does not close until the end of the month.
The Italian also has to navigate his squad through the additional workload of Champions League football.
Like every player and coach it is a burden and a stage he will welcome.
The extra games allow the only Premier League coach to use all substitutes in every match to keep the squad happy and motivated during a World Cup build-up.
Our head coach has said the club 'belong' in the Champions League, and he is driven by the disappointment of losing two of the three final appearances he made as a player, as well as the desire to lift the trophy as a coach.
It is a fact that no team's strategies are as scrutinised as those of the champions. Every rival coach will have looked at what can be copied, or countered.
What made them tick? How can their strengths be neutralised? How did others succeed against them?.
Finally, a good omen, if you believe in that sort of thing. Opening the defence of the Premier League title at home to a claret-and-blue team, Burnley, has worked well in the past.
The Clarets were the first visitors to Stamford Bridge of 1954/55, and West Ham United wore the same livery for last season's opener – both title wins. Another successful Blues campaign, 2014/15, kicked off with a trip to Burnley, too.
Assistant coaches: Angelo Alessio, Gianluca Conte, Paolo Vanoli, Davide Mazzotta. Goalkeeping Coach: Gianluca Spinelli. Assistant Goalkeeping Coach: Henrique Hilario. Fitness Coaches: Paolo Bertelli, Julio Tous, and Chris Jones.
Assistant Fitness Coach: Costantino Coratti. Consultant Personal Trainer/Nutritionist: Tiberio Ancora. Club ambassador and Assistant to First Team Coach: Carlo Cudicini.
The champions are routinely linked by the media with any player that takes their fancy, but Chelsea fans will be pleased with the business completed so far with the acquisition of brilliant forward Alvaro Morata, his fellow 24-year-old, and Roma's best defender, Antonio Rudiger, and the 22-year-old powerhouse midfielder and Champions League semi-finalist Tiemoue Bakayoko.
Those three players arrive from overseas with no Premier League experience, but plenty in UEFA competitions. On top of that, they have decent records against one of our possible challenges for the league title, Manchester City.
The Blues new no. 9, Morata, has played two and won two games against the Citizens, as well as scoring a Champions League winner at the Etihad.
Bakayoko, who sports the no.
14 squad number in tribute to the 14th arrondissement of Paris where he grew up, has a record of played five, won three against the Mancunians, and netted (above) past another new Chelsea signing, Willy Caballero – last seen at the Bridge in April, saving Hazard's penalty but, crucially, conceding the follow-up.
Caballero is the club's first Wilfred or similar since Wilf Chitty, our left-winger 80 years ago. Last season, the Argentinean kept a clean sheet in more than a third of his top-flight appearances.
Michy Batshuayi scored four goals in his last three league outings last season, including that unforgettable winner at the Hawthorns, and continued the net-bulging form in Asia.
There are also exciting homegrown talents returning from loan. The summer tour of Asia provided promising glimpses of the likes of Charly Musonda, Jeremie Boga, and Andreas Christensen.
Visit again tomorrow for part two of the Pre-Season Briefing, when the focus turns to the opposition, the matchday experience and the history. Academy players' international honours with England.
Under-20s World Cup winners: Jake Clarke-Salter, Dominic Solanke, Fiyayo Tomori. Under-20s Toulon International Tournament winners: Josh Grant, Reece James, Martell Taylor-Crossdale, Ike Ugbo, Tariq Uwakwe. Under-19s UEFA Championship winners: Jay Dasilva (capt), Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James, Jacob Maddox, Mason Mount, Dujon Sterling.
Chelsea's wonderful new kits, with the first choice harking back to the classic strips of the 1970s, are made by Nike, the club's fifth different supplier over the past four decades.
Nike: 2017-.
Adidas: 2006-2017.
Umbro: 1987-2006. Chelsea Collection: 1986/1987.
Le Coq Sportif: 1981-1986. Umbro: 1975-1981.
2017/18 is the third season of Yokohama's sponsorship of the Chelsea kit, and the second with Carabao emblazoned on our training wear. A commercial change was also agreed by Premier League clubs last November, permitting sponsorship on the left sleeve.
The Premier League logo – which in the champions' case will be gold coloured – must still be worn on the right sleeve, but Alliance Tyres, a Yokohama brand, will occupy the other arm.
Supporters may notice a fresh look to the names and numbers on Premier League shirts this season, thanks to a brand new font to be used on shirts.
Clubs also now have five different colourways to choose from: black, navy, red, and yellow, all with white details, or white with black details.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup runs next summer from 14 June to 15 July and for some the chance to shine in enough games may lead to the call-up; for others the world's biggest festival of football may offer solace at the end of a disappointing campaign.
Despite having squads regularly packed with international players, the Blues have generally managed to avoid the distraction and fared very well in past World Cup seasons, winning the league before the 2006 and 2010 summer tournaments.
In 1998 there were League Cup and UEFA Cup-Winners' Cup wins, and in 2002 we were FA Cup runners-up, meaning another lengthy campaign. The anomaly was a transitional 2013/14, Jose Mourinho's first back at the Bridge.
In order to ensure this season finishes early to accommodate the FIFA tournament, top-flight sides will face four league games in nine days over Christmas and new year and eight in total from 2 December to 1 January.
The season also has to cram in four international breaks ahead of the World Cup, in September, early October, mid-November, and the end of March.
The second game of the season away to Tottenham will be our fourth visit to Wembley in as many months.
Another standout in the schedule is back-to-back games in Manchester from the end of February. However, the first of those, at Old Trafford, will be rescheduled should either participant reach the League Cup final slated for the same weekend.
Recent history shows such matches can be delayed until the end of the season. The return of Champions League football has everyone excited ahead of the draw. The Champions League group stage draw is on Thursday 24 August.
- Pot 1: Real Madrid, Bayern, Chelsea, Juventus, Benfica, Monaco, Spartak Moscow, Shakhtar Donetsk. - Pot 2: Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Dortmund, Manchester City, Porto, Manchester United, one TBC. - Pot 3: Basel, Anderlecht, six TBC. - Pot 4: Eight TBC.
Depending on who the qualifiers are, Tottenham could be in Pot 2 or 3, while Roma, Besiktas, Feyenoord and Leipzig will be in Pot 3 or 4.
After the six Champions League group rounds, the champions of England will face Arsenal, Manchester City, Watford and Manchester United (all at the Bridge), then Liverpool and West Ham United away.
The 2018 final will be at the Olympic Stadium in Kiev – the arena that staged the Euro 2012 final. The game is scheduled for Saturday 26 May 2018, kick-off 7.45pm.
But first things first: the Community Shield kicks off at 2pm on Sunday 6 August and will be broadcast live on BT Sport. Carabao Cup round three – Wednesday 23 August tbc. Champions League group stage – Thursday 24 August.
FA Cup round three – Monday 4 December tbc. Carabao Cup – Sunday 25 February 2018, Wembley Stadium. FA Cup – Saturday 19 May 2018, Wembley Stadium.
Champions League – Saturday 26 May 2018, Olympic Stadium, Kiev. Visit again tomorrow for part two of the Pre-Season Briefing, when the focus turns to the opposition, the matchday experience and the history.
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