It seems like a lot longer than three years since Antonio Conte led Chelsea to the most recent of their sixth top-flight title. If it seems like an improbable achievement now, then in the summer of 2016, it must have seemed like a pipe dream.

The Blues had put up one of the worst title defences in post-war football, finishing a frankly disgraceful 10th, 13 points behind Southampton in 6th place, and a million miles behind eventual champions Leicester. Mourinho paid for the shambles with his job, and when Antonio Conte came into the job in the summer of 2016, he made four big signings in £40m Michy Batshuayi, £23m Marcos Alonso, returning player David Luiz (£30m from Paris St. Germain) and £30m N’Golo Kante.

Clearly the most important of the two signings, Kante’s cut-price arrival from reigning champions Leicester got Chelsea off to a great start in the league, with three straight wins at the start of the campaign against West Ham (2-1), Watford (2-1) and Burnley (3-0) getting the West London side off to the perfect start against easy opposition.

At that stage, however, Chelsea encountered the first tricky spell of what would be ultimately be an amazingly successful season. A scrabbled 2-2 draw at Swansea was followed by consecutive league defeats. A home defeat by Liverpool was followed by another defeat, and this time a resounding one away at Arsenal. It was a humbling 3-0 display that saw Chelsea ripped to pieces by half-time.