It will be Conte’s finest hour if he crashes Pep and Jose’s title bash
A title was secured with a minimum of fuss on the back of 13 successive victories from the beginning of October as the Italian struck a vital blow in the battle between the big-six bosses who started the campaign.
It was almost seamless, save for an ugly spat with striker Diego Costa – the Brazilian striker somehow surviving until the end of the campaign.
However, since then Conte has found himself challenged on several fronts. And, this time around, it will be far harder to shake off the competition.
For a start, controversial striker Costa has departed in acrimony, to be replaced not by long-time target Romelu Lukaku but Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata.
Second, the considerable presence of Nemanja Matic is no more.
The Serbian midfielder was offloaded to his No.1 fan Jose Mourinho for £40million in a deal that may yet come back to bite the Italian.
With Champions League football to consider too, it remains to be seen whether Tiemoue Bakayoko can fill the gap left by Matic.
Or indeed if Danny Drinkwater, a £30m purchase from Leicester City, can rekindle his successful midfield partnership with N’golo Kante.
So, Conte (right) has had to manage change.
So far Chelsea are the best bet to break the stranglehold the two Manchester clubs have on the title race after just seven weeks of the new campaign.
But Conte’s saintly aura has definitely lost its lustre.
The Italian has himself been the subject of unwanted speculation.
His own contract was seen as a potential deal-breaker, and there were grumblings of discontent from Costa long before he secured his £67m move to Atletico Madrid.
There were moans too from supporters puzzled by Matic’s exit, particularly to a club that will be in the running to succeed Chelsea as Premier League champions.
That confusion manifested itself within 45 minutes of the campaign getting under way.
Knowing now what we didn’t know then – that Burnley were capable of taking points from Wembley against Spurs, from Anfield against Liverpool, and from Goodison Park against Everton – maybe it wasn’t such a seismic shock that Sean Dyche’s side stormed into a three-goal half-time lead.
But Chelsea’s opening-day defeat by the Clarets appeared to sum up the muddled manner in which the champs had spent their summer. Since then, though, Conte has regrouped.
With Costa now out of the picture and Morata (right) settling in quickly, the Blues got back on track in no time.
A four-goal thumping dished out to Stoke City, coming in the week that the club travelled to Madrid for a charged Champions League encounter with Atletico, was arguably the pick of the results. But last weekend’s clash at the Bridge against Manchester City is likely to serve as a wakeup call for Conte and his team. Pep Guardiola’s team put on a masterclass against opponents who looked surprisingly leggy from first whistle to last. This particular competition could well be decided by the results earned IT was some achievement by Conte to win the title in his first season at Chelsea. That was against the backdrop of a campaign without European distraction. It is very different when the Champions League is added to the fixture list. Conte has his work cut out to turn what appears to be a two-horse race into a three-runner race. by the top six against one another – and there is no disguising this was a blow to Conte’s hopes of retaining the big silver pot. He would surely deserve a medal if he could manage to keep Manchester at bay for a second season on the spin. Right now it’s looking unlikely. Although Conte’s halo is still there, signs are it might not be sitting quite so straight come the end of the season. Just yet, it is impossible to say if Chelsea have improved. But both clubs in Manchester have. And it’s going to be an even greater challenge to win the Premier League this season than it was 12 months ago.