Antonio Conte expects the 17-18 season to be the "most difficult" of his career with Chelsea light on numbers as they defend their title.

Conte have spent £127 million on Antonio Rudiger, Tiemoué Bakayoko and Álvaro Morata while they have taken Willy Caballero on a free move. 

The most high-profile outgoings have been John Terry, Nemanja Matic, Asmir Begovic, Nathan Ake, Kurt Zouma, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Nathaniel Chalobah, Bertrand Traoré and Dominic Solanke while Diego Costa will not play for the club again.

“For sure it will be the most difficult season of my career as a coach,” Conte said. “Why? There are many reasons and I haven’t a lot of time to explain a lot of these reasons. But I am sure about this. In this moment we have a small squad. Everyone can see the situation. It’s not because the coach shouts: ‘I want this’ or ‘I want this’. We hope to improve it because it’s very clear. But for me and the players the best way now is to be focused on the pitch and not to think of the other situation.”