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3) Loss of Costa and Matic
Diego Costa is still a Chelsea player, but will be considered a loss as it’s unlikely he will play this season. Additionally, Matic, a two time Premier League winner, has also been sold, to team up with previous boss Jose Mourinho at Man United.
This is two extremely important players who were instrumental to their title success who will not be a part of this season. Conte has made it clear that losing Matic was a ‘huge loss’, suggesting he clearly wasn’t pleased about the sale.
Additionally, Costa scored 20 league goals last season, the most by any Chelsea player, emphasising how big of a miss the Spaniard will be.
Conte may have brought in Alvaro Morata, but with him potentially needing time to adapt, it would have been ideal to have kept Costa for at least one more year. Similarly, the Blues have brought in Tiemoue Bakayoko to replace Matic, but his talent is still quite raw and he will need time to adapt, especially coming back from injury.
Losing these two players who were a big part of Chelsea’s spine last year is certainly going to mean they will drop more points this season.
