CHELSEA WON’T HAVE IT SO EASY

Rivals will be stronger this year, says Wenger

FOR Antonio Conte, the new season begins with questions about whether his Chelsea team can be as seamlessly productive as they were last time round. Can they win the Premier League again?

Arsene Wenger thinks they may have it a little tougher.

‘I expect them to fight for the championship,’ said the Arsenal manager. ‘But will they make as many points? I don’t know.

‘You could expect that some teams will be stronger as well and take points from them.’

Wenger himself, meanwhile, faced more fundamental questions as he spoke at the Emirates this week.

Was he right to stay on in the wake of last season’s regression? How good do results need to be to justify his decision to sign the new contract that angered so many of his club’s supporters?

Like it or not, it’s Groundhog Day in north London and it probably will be until Arsenal see signs that Wenger’s team can become truly competitive again in the Premier League.

‘I am sorry that I am still here,’ said Wenger, raising his hands in mock apology. ‘I can understand that you want to kill me but at the moment, I survive.

‘Look, we won the FA Cup last season and made 75 points. We are of course not happy with it but some teams made worse.’ Tomorrow’s game at Wembley will prove nothing, of course. The Community Shield is rarely indicative of what is to come when the serious stuff starts. Four years ago, David Moyes’ Manchester United won it and we know how that relationship ended.

For these two teams, though, memories will at least be stirred.

Chelsea lost May’s FA Cup final to Arsenal to be reminded that disappointment lurks round every corner in English football if you let your standards slip. Arsenal played beautifully that day.

Wenger is the type of manager who sees every glass as half full. If he didn’t he would have walked away some time ago. So it was within character to hear him place such significance on that result this week. He said: ‘When we qualified for the Champions League, people told me, “But you didn’t win a trophy”.

‘Now we won a trophy, and didn’t qualify for the Champions League, and it’s said to me, “Why are you not in the Champions League?”

‘That’s normal to live with but I want to focus on my job and do as well as I can and win absolutely every competition.

‘Last year, Chelsea did not play in the European Cup and certainly they were a bit more consistent (in the Premier League). We made 75 points last season, which was four more than the year before, when we finished second in the league. So it looks like Chelsea has taken advantage of the fact that all the other teams were less consistent.

‘In the FA Cup final we have shown that the gap was not as high maybe. And we have to show that again on Sunday.’

If Arsenal’s challenge this season is to improve, one wonders if they have done enough over the summer. They have invested £52million in France forward Alexandre Lacazette but will that be adequate to address fundamental weaknesses that ran through them like colours through a stick of rock last term? Probably not.

For Chelsea, they must hope for a little more of the same. Once Conte changed formation after defeat at Arsenal last autumn, his team’s beauty was to be found in consistency. Like a champion’s golf swing, they were programmed mercilessly to repeat.

They will miss Diego Costa, the footballer if not the man. The striker was a fundamental pivot around which wide forwards Eden Hazard and Pedro could rotate. Alvaro Morata has replaced him but he is a different kind of player and the hole he must fill is significant. Equally, Conte must hope for further good fortune with injuries. His team was largely settled last season and that, in England, is a rare luxury.

Last night the Chelsea manager said: ‘I think we were lucky (with injuries last season) and, also, very good. There are two different injuries. When there is a traumatic injury, you can do nothing.

‘The other injuries are muscular problems and in this way, you must be very good with your work to avoid them. In this case, my staff was very good to avoid this type of injuries.’

So the new season is here, even if tomorrow’s fixture sits very much on the undercard.

But two managers who both had cause to ponder their futures — if for very different reasons — last May are still here and that says much for the magnetic pull of the English game. Not long now until the bell for round one.