4 things that went wrong for Chelsea this season

#3 Kante's defensive midfield partner

Arsenal v Chelsea - Premier League

Most clubs around the world would consider themselves blessed to have either the likes of Nemanja Matic or N'Golo Kanté on their books.

So when Chelsea had both of them play together, Conte had a strong foundation to build his team around and comfortably marched towards the Premier League title in his first season.

However, the Chelsea hierarchy under Roman Abramovich has started taking steps to make the club a more profitable business model over the last few years, and their transfer activity this season had largely been affected by this.

One such example was the shock sale of Nemanja Matic to Manchester United. The defensive midfielders are vital cogs in a 3-4-3 system, which is why Matic and Kanté were the first names on the team sheet last season.

To replace such a big presence in midfield is a huge task, but Chelsea resorted to the purchase of yet another rather inexperienced player in Tiemoue Bakayoko, who had only regularly started for AS Monaco the previous season.

Unfortunately, the French international had an obvious struggle to adapt to the pace of English football, always looking one step slower than the players surrounding him.

With Cesc Fabregas not having the strength or defensive nous to replace the big Serbian, and deadline day addition Danny Drinkwater, being constantly out of contention with injury or lack of fitness, Chelsea never truly managed to get an ideal replacement in the starting XI.