4 things that went wrong for Chelsea this season

#1 Quality squad depth

Roman Abramovich looks on at Stamford Bridge

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.