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Known to be one of the big spenders in the Premier League ever since Roman Abramovich bought the club, Chelsea has never had a shortage of quality on the pitch.
After a terrible 2015-16 season, the appointment of Antonio Conte at the helm for the 2016-17 season turned their fortunes around, as they won the Premier League with a then-record of 30 wins after deploying his now famous 3-4-3 formation.
The 2017-2018 season began with the Blues having high hopes, however, the season turned out to be disappointing, as they were knocked out of the Champions League in the round of 16, mounted a very weak defense of its Premier League title and to make matters worse, the team failed to qualify for Europe's elite competition for the second time in three seasons.
Here is an analysis of 4 things that went wrong with the Blues last season:
#4 The Alvaro Morata gamble
His strength, speed, and height meant Diego Costa had all the physical attributes of being a success in the Premier League.
While the Brazilian-born striker was prolific throughout his stay at the Bridge, it was his attitude on and off the pitch that endeared him to the Chelsea fans, as it seemed that the Blues had finally found someone to continue the legacy of Didier Drogba.
However, with his repeated tantrums drawing the ire of Conte, that was not meant to be. The Italian tactician chose a rather unconventional way to offload him, and so began Chelsea's striker woes.
Purchased for nearly £60m from Real Madrid, Spanish striker Alvaro Morata had to fill in for the huge space vacated by Costa. The club chose to ignore the fact that the incoming Spaniard was never used as a first-choice striker in any of his previous clubs.
The Brazilian-Spaniard played slightly north of 3000 minutes in the Premier League alone last season, while Morata has never crossed the 2000 minute mark in any season throughout his career. The shift to the intensity of English football, along with the increase in his number of minutes on the pitch ultimately proved too much for his mind and body to handle.
While his abilities were praised throughout the first half of the season, injuries and bad form lead to his woeful fall from grace in 2018. This was probably why the Chelsea hierarchy was more interested in luring Romelu Lukaku initially instead, who has played at the top tier in England for the last few years.
It was also probably why Antonio Conte was desperate to sign Fernando Llorente as a reliable back-up for Morata, with the manager always looking reluctant to use Michy Batshuayi against difficult opposition.
Some of Chelsea's players, Cesc Fabregas in particular, have been open about how the number of chances their strikers have missed has cost them several games this season.
#3 Kante's defensive midfield partner
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.
#2 The sweeper role
The returning David Luiz won all the plaudits for an excellent 2016-17 in a sweeper role for Chelsea, and more of the same was expected of him the following season.
However, after a bust-up with Conte following Chelsea's 3-0 defeat to AS Roma in the Champions League group stage, Luiz was effectively phased out of the team for good.
While Andreas Christensen did an excellent job for the most part and deservedly received praises from critics, he has made a fair share of mistakes too.
A series of high-profile errors and poor defensive displays from the Danish international against Barcelona, Manchester City and Manchester United in successive games deflated the morale of the team and effectively changed the course of the season.
Playing Gary Cahill against Bournemouth and a rusty Luiz against Watford led to disasters, and without stability in this position, Conte's 3-4-3 looked as shaky as it could ever be. By this time, Chelsea had relinquished their position in the top 4, something they never truly looked like recovering after their home defeat to Tottenham.
#1 Quality squad depth
Chelsea have taken a very different approach to the one they began with when Roman Abramovich took over the club in 2003.
They now seem to employ a sell-to-buy strategy and are trying to curb their net spend in transfer windows. Chelsea are now below both Manchester clubs, Liverpool and Arsenal in terms of net spend over the last 5 seasons.
However, this resulted in Chelsea going into the 2017-18 season with a squad that looked severely depleted of any reliable quality on the bench, something Conte has criticized on numerous occasions throughout the season.
An out-of-sorts Pedro and inconsistent Willian meant Conte sometimes had to throw on inexperienced academy stars Jeremie Boga and Callum Hudson-Odoi to salvage matches for them, something that is rarely seen in some of the bigger clubs around Europe.
A series of injuries to players in the starting XI through the end of 2017 meant Conte didn't really have many players on the bench who could have made a difference on the pitch.
The board tried to shore up their squad in the winter transfer window, but those transfers too, barring the signing of Olivier Giroud, did not bring the desired change as both Ross Barkley and Emerson Palmieri, were returning from injury layoffs and were short of match fitness for much of 2018.
