Chelsea will be a serious title threat under Conte

IT is a year since the storm clouds rolled in over Stamford Bridge and Chelsea’s defence of the Premier League title unravelled spectacularly.

My third column of last season was devoted to Chelsea. They had been through a difficult summer and on the back of a dreadful loss to Manchester City, when they were thrashed 3-0, the champions — and Jose Mourinho — dominated conversations across the land.

Here we are 12 months on. Mourinho, inevitably, is once again at the centre of the plot and we have been wrapped up in the early stages of the tussle between him and Pep Guardiola that is unfolding in Manchester.

But Chelsea? Right now, it feels like they are flying under the radar. You cannot help be drawn to Mourinho and Guardiola but it would be a mistake not to pay the closest attention to the work of Antonio Conte (right).

Chelsea aren’t a popular club in England. We don’t like the fact that they continually chop and change their managers, that men with the pedigree of Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti can be sacked at the first sign of trouble.

But Roman Abramovich has set an agenda from day one. He is ruthless and sent out a message that he is there to win. Consequently, everybody at the club knows what is expected of them and they have appointed a manager who embodies that approach.

After just three games, we have seen Conte will not shirk any decision — Cesc Fabregas, who has lost his place, will already acknowledge that — to get the result he wants.

Look at his opening night at Stamford Bridge. After losing an equaliser in 77 minutes, Conte brought on three subs against West Ham, including taking off Eden Hazard, who had been man of the match. The outcome? A 2-1 victory.

It was the same again at Watford last week. Three changes, all made in the final 20 minutes, saw a 1-0 deficit turned into another 2-1 win.

Though it is early days, these are the results that propel a team into the title race — and that is where I expect Chelsea will be this season. Maybe it is because the standard of Serie A is not as good as the glory days of the 1990s and early 2000s — and Juventus have resources far in advance of their rivals — that Conte’s achievements of winning Lo Scudetto for three consecutive years is almost being taken for granted.

But it is worth looking back at what Juventus were before he was appointed in 2011.

They had not won a trophy after being caught up in a match-fixing scandal, which resulted in relegation in 2006, even though they returned to Serie A at the first attempt.

They had finished seventh for two consecutive seasons before Conte was recruited and, in 2010-11, they finished 24 points behind champions AC Milan. Nobody considered them as being title contenders the following season, yet they won Serie A in 2012 without losing a game. Parallels can be drawn with the situation in Turin to the one presented to him in London. Juventus had no European football to distract them when they became Italy’s champions for the first time under Conte and Chelsea’s free midweeks will be to their advantage. Their attitude was disgraceful last season. No way should a squad with that ability have finished 10th. Don’t be fooled into thinking they are in terminal decline. Chelsea’s squad is top-four standard.

Effectively, Conte has the title winners from 16 months ago and now added the class of N’Golo Kante and the promise of Michyi Batshuayi.

What I like about Conte, however, is that he can adapt to situations.

He always played with a back four at Bari but at Juventus, he saw three top-class central defenders and played them

We then saw in the summer when, he was in charge of Italy, just how good he was at moulding a team with lesser individuals together.

Another win against Burnley today and Chelsea will head into the international break in a familiar position in the leading pack.

Can Conte’s team go the distance? Underestimate them at your peril.