Chelsea stormed to the Premier League title last season but things haven’t quite gone their way since clinching the trophy with a victory over West Brom, losing to Arsenal in the FA Cup final at Wembley and enduring difficult times during pre-season.

The Blues defeated Arsenal in China but experienced defeats to Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, though the defeats on the field have been overshadowed by off the field incidents, including Antonio Conte’s struggles to get action complete in the transfer market and Brazilian youngster Kenedy’s social media mishaps.

It means that Chelsea have returned to West London with their tail tucked between their legs and fans will be concerned that they have found themselves in this sort of position with less than a week to go before the annual curtain raiser for the new season in the Community Shield.

Whilst it may be easy to point the finger, criticising the Blues for their loan policy or their inability to come out of the transfer window in a strong position. For Chelsea though, that needs to be water under the bridge. Antonio Conte certainly needs to continue working behind the scenes to secure more additions but the Blues need to rally together ahead of a difficult start to the season.

The nightmares of two-years ago are still present in Chelsea’s minds, with Conte referencing the fact that Jose Mourinho and Claudio Ranieri, the two Premier League winning managers before the Italian, have been sacked the season after their successes.

Conte wants to avoid the same circumstances this season and his squad, no matter how small it’s perceived to be, needs to become a unit in the next week- though it will be difficult as injured duo Eden Hazard and Tiemoue Bakayoko will miss the start of the season through injury.

Last year Conte masterminded a spectacular campaign for the Blues, when expectations were probably at a slightly lower level than they could of been, and he’ll have to cope with the flip-side of that this season. In the early weeks of the campaign, Chelsea need to lay down a marker.

Following the clash with Arsenal at Wembley, Chelsea start the defence of their Premier League title with an array of difficult matches before the end of September; consisting of Burnley (H), Spurs (A), Everton (H), Leicester (A), Arsenal (H), Stoke (A) and Manchester City (H).

Those matches will certainly not be easy and it’s a daunting task given the current situation at Chelsea but it’s something they can come out fighting from, if they find unity in the next few weeks.