Chelsea show similarities to 2010/11 with small squad in title defence

Antonio Conte will start the season with a squad depleted by injuries and a lack of transfers. If Chelsea do not address squad size they may force Conte to use fewer players than any of his predecessors in the last eight years.

The match-day programme at the Community Shield listed both clubs’ full squads. Arsenal, always being more flash than substance, listed 41 players. Chelsea, often working from necessity rather than manager’s intent, listed a very generous 24. This is three more than Chelsea list on their website, as Jeremie Boga, Fikayo Tomori and Loic Remy do not rate a place there.

And, of course, any raw count of Chelsea’s squad counts a third-string goalkeeper and two players with at least one foot out the door: Kenedy and Diego Costa. Even Gary Cahill commented on the Community Shield souvenir, saying “The back of the programme was interesting.”

Chelsea are very experienced with going through a season – even one with European competitions – with relatively low, stable squad numbers. Last season Chelsea had some of the least rotation in the entire Premier League. The Blues used 24 players, and only 13 had over 1000 minutes.

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The last time Chelsea used only 24 players in a Premier League seasons was 2010/11. The Blues finished second in the Premier League that year, and advanced to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Injuries restricted Carlo Ancelotti’s options in the squad that season. He had the fewest players in the squad with under 100 minutes of the last eight years. This shows how much workload his regulars had to shoulder.

The quality of play and performances were inconsistent throughout the season. In true Chelsea style, Ancelotti was a victim of his previous season of over-achievement. He won the domestic double in 2009/10, which meant that finishing second was a sack-worthy offence at the end of 2010/11.

In 2014/15, Jose Mourinho won the Premier League using 25 players, only 12 of whom played over 1000 minutes. This is the fewest number of players to reach the 1000 minute mark in the last eight year. Chelsea also won the League Cup that year, although they bowed out of the Champions League in the Round of 16.

Chelsea had their largest squad in the 2009/10 double-winning season. Ancelotti fielded 30 players,15 of whom played over 1000 league minutes.

Antonio Conte will likely have to start the season with two youth players filling the seats for the match-day squad. Of the players on the first team website, only 16 are actual choices for Saturday’s opener at Burnley. The others are injured, imminent departures (Kenedy and Costa) or Eduardo.

Even after (if?) Chelsea bring in more transfers, Antonio Conte will need at least a month to bring them up to standards tactically and physically. This will keep the squad light, perhaps into Chelsea’s first Champions League tie. But the Blues will still have plenty of time to rotate the squad over the course of season and stay within the bounds of recent history for player usage.

Next: Chelsea transfer watch shifts to courtrooms and Champions League quals

Hopefully Antonio Conte will not suffer the fate of the last over-achieving manager who went to war with the army he had.

All stats from whoscored.com.