Assessing the early contenders for the Barclays Premier League

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Chelsea – It is hard to believe that Chelsea were the defending champions during the 2015/16 Premier League campaign as they stumbled to a 10^th place finish that saw Jose Mourinho lose his job mid-way through the season. Antonio Conte has been appointed to fill the void left by the enigmatic Portuguese maestro and the former Italian national team manager has had a difficult start to life at Stamford Bridge. After kicking off the season with four wins in all competitions Chelsea suffered a disappointing loss at home to Liverpool and a 3-0 thumping at the hands of Arsenal during September to raise question marks over their title challenge pedigree.

Diego Costa has re-found his goal scoring touch and the Chelsea squad in general has plenty of experience in winning titles and trophies. However, defensively questions still remain following the signing of David Luiz, injury to Kurt Zouma, and the aging John Terry, and The Blues will definitely be looking to strengthen when the transfer window opens in January. Conte can boast of having a proven track record of securing league titles but it appears that his current group of players are still short of being able to win the Premier League.