Sidelining Diego Costa strengthens Chelsea's unit but questions remain over squad depth

Eden Hazard

LAST SEASON

1st

TOP SCORER

Diego Costa (20)

KEY INS

Alvaro Morata (Real Madrid, £70.6m), Tiemoue Bakayoko (Monaco, £40m), Antonio Rudiger (Roma, £31m), Willy Caballero (Manchester City, free)

KEY OUTS

Nemanja Matic (Manchester United, £40m), Nathan Ake (Bournemouth £20m), Juan Cuadrado (Juventus, £17m), Asmir Begovic (Bournemouth, £10m), Bertrand Traore (Lyon £8.8m)

REASONS TO BE POSITIVE

Last season’s runaway champions have added real quality in Morata and Bakayoko, plus Conte was a repeat title winner at Juventus.

REASONS TO BE PESSIMISTIC

Question marks exist about whether their squad is deep enough to handle the return of Champions League football.

ONE TO WATCH

Morata will be determined to prove he can start every week for an elite club. With World Cup 2018 on the horizon, he’ll be desperate to impress.

EXPECTATION

Chelsea will pick up where they left off last term, with the sidelining of the fractious Diego Costa strengthening the unit.

REALITY

More points will be dropped as the demands of European football takes hold. Hazard will again need to be at his inspirational best to fuel a competitive title defence.