Ten years ago, Chelsea entered a Premier League season attempting to recover from one of the most disastrous title defences in the competition’s history.
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They had finished 10th in 2015/16, appointed a manager renowned for transforming teams and had no European football to distract them. Antonio Conte subsequently changed Chelsea’s tactical system, unlocked the potential of a talented squad and delivered the Premier League title with 93 points in his first season.
A decade later, the similarities are difficult to ignore.
Chelsea finished 10th again in 2025/26. They are without European football again. They have appointed another manager who produced an unbeaten league-winning season elsewhere in Europe. And Xabi Alonso, like Conte, arrives with a tactical philosophy heavily associated with three central defenders and attacking wing-backs.
Add an ambitious transfer window and the prospect of Cole Palmer rediscovering his best form, and Chelsea suddenly have the ingredients to become one of the Premier League’s most intriguing title challengers.
History doesn’t guarantee anything.
But history may be offering Chelsea a very interesting blueprint.
The Xabi Alonso era begins with a win at Chelsea 👏 pic.twitter.com/QsmABAaAst
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 24, 2026
From 10th to Champions: The 2016/17 Blueprint
The starting point is just how similar Chelsea’s two situations are.
The 2015/16 season was a disaster. Jose Mourinho departed in December after nine defeats in Chelsea’s opening 16 Premier League matches, and Guus Hiddink eventually guided the club to 10th. A team that had been champions only a year earlier finished 31 points behind Leicester City.
Conte inherited that mess.
What followed was remarkable.
Chelsea won 30 of their 38 league games, collected 93 points and finished seven points clear of Tottenham to become champions.
Yet it wasn’t an instant transformation.
Back-to-back defeats against Liverpool and Arsenal early in the campaign forced Conte to reconsider his approach. After the 3-0 loss at the Emirates, he committed to the three-man defence that would define Chelsea’s season.
The switch produced extraordinary results.
Chelsea won their next 13 Premier League matches, with Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz and Gary Cahill forming the defensive three and Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso providing width from wing-back. N’Golo Kanté and Nemanja Matić protected the defence, while Eden Hazard and Pedro/Willian operated around Diego Costa.
It was a system perfectly suited to the personnel available.
Ten years later, Alonso has an opportunity to produce his own tactical reset.
Conte Arrived As An Invincible. So Does Alonso
This might be the most fascinating parallel.
Conte arrived at Chelsea with an extraordinary domestic achievement already on his CV.
During his first season as Juventus manager in 2011/12, he led the club to the Serie A championship without losing a single league match. Juventus completed all 38 games unbeaten, beginning a period of dominance in Italian football.
Alonso has done something remarkably similar in Germany.
His Bayer Leverkusen side became the first team in Bundesliga history to complete an entire league season undefeated in 2023/24.
Leverkusen finished with 28 victories, six draws and zero defeats, ending Bayern Munich’s run of 11 consecutive Bundesliga championships. They also went 51 matches unbeaten in all competitions before eventually losing the Europa League final to Atalanta.
The significance isn’t simply that both managers went undefeated.
Both proved capable of disrupting an established order.
Conte inherited a Juventus side that had finished seventh in consecutive seasons before immediately turning them into champions. Alonso took charge of Leverkusen when they were second-bottom in October 2022 and, less than two years later, transformed them into unbeaten Bundesliga champions.
That experience feels particularly relevant at Chelsea.
Alonso has already demonstrated that he can inherit a team performing well below its potential, establish a distinctive identity and rapidly transform its expectations.
The Back Three Could Transform Chelsea Again
The tactical similarities are impossible to miss.
Conte’s 3-4-3 became one of the defining systems of the 2016/17 Premier League season.
Alonso’s football has also been built largely around three central defenders.
At Leverkusen, his 3-4-2-1 utilised two attacking wing-backs, two central midfielders and a pair of inside forwards behind the striker. The structure allowed Leverkusen to dominate central areas while creating width through the wing-backs.
The numbers demonstrate just how productive those positions became.
During Leverkusen’s unbeaten Bundesliga campaign, Jeremie Frimpong and Alejandro Grimaldo combined for 19 goals and 20 assists.
That should sound familiar to Chelsea supporters.
Conte transformed Victor Moses into an outstanding right wing-back while Marcos Alonso became one of the Premier League’s most dangerous players in that position. Suddenly Chelsea could defend with five and attack with width without sacrificing numbers centrally.
Alonso isn’t simply copying Conte, of course.
His football places greater emphasis on possession, positional rotations and building through central areas. But the basic structure offers similar possibilities.
Chelsea’s final three pre-season fixtures were played with a back three, and Alonso continued experimenting with the shape during the opening 3-2 Premier League victory over Fulham.
The personnel increasingly appears designed for it too.
Maxence Lacroix adds pace and experience to the central defensive options, while Marco Palestra has been recruited after developing as an attacking wing-back at Atalanta. Players such as Malo Gusto and Jorrel Hato provide further tactical flexibility.
If Alonso can find his equivalent of Conte’s perfectly balanced 2016/17 structure, Chelsea could improve rapidly.
No Champions League Could Be Chelsea’s Biggest Advantage
Perhaps the most important similarity has nothing to do with formations.
Chelsea aren’t playing European football.
That is obviously a consequence of failure rather than something the club wanted. Finishing 10th last season meant missing out on Europe altogether.
But in a Premier League title race, it could become a significant advantage.
Conte’s champions had exactly the same luxury.
Chelsea’s 10th-place finish in 2015/16 meant there were no Champions League or Europa League fixtures the following season. Conte could therefore spend entire weeks preparing his team for one opponent.
There was no European travel.
No Wednesday night Champions League fixture followed by a difficult Premier League away game three days later.
No need to rotate key players before European knockout matches.
And, crucially for a new manager introducing an unfamiliar tactical system, more time on the training pitch.
That could be enormous for Alonso.
His system requires coordination. Centre-backs need to understand when to step into midfield. Wing-backs need to know when to advance or move inside. The two attacking midfielders need to find spaces between the lines without occupying each other’s positions.
Those relationships are developed through repetition.
While Chelsea’s title rivals are preparing for and recovering from Champions League matches, Alonso could regularly have uninterrupted training weeks to work on them.
It also reduces the physical load on his most important players.
The 2016/17 champions benefited enormously from that situation, with Conte able to use a remarkably settled Premier League team.
Alonso has the opportunity to do something similar.
Chelsea Have Backed Alonso In The Transfer Market
The comparison becomes even more compelling when considering Chelsea’s recruitment.
This hasn’t been a quiet summer.
Morgan Rogers has arrived from Aston Villa in one of the headline transfers of the window and looks particularly suited to Alonso’s system. The England international can carry the ball through pressure, create chances and operate as one of the two attacking midfielders behind the striker.
Chelsea have also added Maxence Lacroix, Marco Palestra, Valentín Barco and Geovany Quenda, while the experienced Jordan Henderson and Danny Welbeck have strengthened a squad that has sometimes lacked leadership and know-how.
That blend is important.
Chelsea’s recruitment in recent years has overwhelmingly focused on potential. Alonso still has an exceptionally young squad, but the addition of experienced professionals alongside players entering or approaching their prime gives him different tools.
Lacroix fits the back-three structure.
Palestra provides the kind of dynamic wing-back Alonso relied upon at Leverkusen.
Rogers gives Chelsea another elite ball-carrier and creator around the penalty area.
Henderson and Welbeck provide experience inside a dressing room that has often been exceptionally young.
Chelsea’s own pre-season assessment highlighted Alonso’s desire to introduce a greater combination of youth and experience, as well as more height, pace and physicality.
The squad now looks considerably better suited to his football than the one he inherited.
Morgan Rogers Could Make Cole Palmer Even Better
The Rogers signing deserves particular attention because of what it could mean for Cole Palmer.
Chelsea have been heavily dependent on Palmer for creativity since his arrival from Manchester City.
At his best, he is one of the Premier League’s most decisive attacking players.
The problem with that dependence is obvious: stop Palmer and you significantly reduce Chelsea’s threat.
Rogers changes the equation.
Alonso’s preferred 3-4-2-1 creates space for two attacking midfielders behind the striker, potentially allowing Palmer and Rogers to operate together.
Opponents can no longer simply overload Palmer’s side and assume Chelsea’s creativity disappears.
Rogers can carry through midfield.
Palmer can drift into pockets.
Joao Pedro can drop away from the defensive line.
Wing-backs can stretch the pitch.
That creates significantly more difficult decisions for defenders.
The Premier League’s own tactical analysis of Rogers’ arrival described him as an ideal inside forward for Alonso’s 3-4-2-1, particularly because of his line-breaking and ball-carrying ability.
Chelsea gave us an early glimpse of the possibilities against Fulham.
Morgan gets his debut goal! 👏#CFC | #FULCHE pic.twitter.com/ElRkdCl4bB
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) August 24, 2026
Cole Palmer Looks Like Cole Palmer Again
For all the money Chelsea have spent, the biggest improvement might already have been at the club.
A refreshed Cole Palmer could completely alter Chelsea’s ceiling.
His opening performance against Fulham was extremely encouraging.
Palmer produced a goal and an assist in Chelsea’s 3-2 victory, combining superbly with Joao Pedro as Alonso’s new attacking structure immediately showed promise.
Alonso was delighted with what he saw, highlighting Palmer’s dynamism, freedom and sense of responsibility within the team.
That matters because Chelsea don’t necessarily need to discover a new superstar.
They need their existing superstar back at his best.
Palmer had the summer to recover after missing the World Cup, and Chelsea’s own pre-season assessment noted that he was among the players looking particularly sharp after that break.
The early evidence is promising.
His Premier League season has begun with one goal and one assist from his first appearance, and his combination with Rogers and João Pedro immediately gives Chelsea an attacking platform with enormous potential.
If Palmer returns to being one of the league’s most productive attacking players, the title argument becomes considerably easier to make.
You heard him. 🥶 pic.twitter.com/kko4pytuy0
— Premier League (@premierleague) August 25, 2026
The Similarities Between Conte’s Chelsea And Alonso’s Chelsea
| 2016/17 Chelsea | 2026/27 Chelsea |
| Finished 10th the previous season | Finished 10th the previous season |
| New manager in Antonio Conte | New manager in Xabi Alonso |
| Conte had won Serie A unbeaten | Alonso won the Bundesliga unbeaten |
| No European football | No European football |
| Switched to a back three | Alonso prefers a back three |
| Marcos Alonso arrived as a specialist wing-back | Marco Palestra arrives with wing-back experience |
| N’Golo Kanté added to midfield | Alonso inherits Caicedo and Fernández |
| Hazard was the elite creative attacker | Palmer is the elite creative attacker |
| Diego Costa led the attack | João Pedro leads Alonso’s new-look attack |
| Won the Premier League | Can Alonso repeat history? |
The parallels are striking.
They aren’t proof that Chelsea will become champions, but they explain why dismissing their chances purely because they finished 10th last season would be a mistake.
Why This Chelsea Team Could Be A Genuine Title Challenger
The strongest argument for Chelsea isn’t any individual similarity with 2016/17.
It’s the way those advantages combine.
They have a manager who has already demonstrated an ability to transform a struggling team.
They have a tactical system he knows intimately.
They have recruited specifically for that structure.
They have one of the Premier League’s most talented attacking players in Palmer.
They have added another outstanding creator and ball-carrier in Rogers.
And while their major rivals negotiate Champions League campaigns, Chelsea can spend much of the season preparing exclusively for domestic football.
There are legitimate concerns.
The opening 3-2 win at Fulham demonstrated that Alonso hasn’t immediately solved Chelsea’s defensive problems. Robert Sanchez made costly errors, the team struggled for control at times and Fulham had opportunities to rescue a draw.
A genuine title challenge will require considerably greater defensive consistency.
There is also no guarantee that Alonso’s back three will translate as spectacularly to English football as Conte’s did.
But Chelsea don’t need to be the finished product in August.
Conte’s team weren’t either.
Final Thoughts
Chelsea winning the Premier League this season would be an extraordinary turnaround.
It would not, however, be unprecedented.
The club has already produced almost exactly that transformation before.
Ten years ago, Chelsea went from 10th to first after appointing an elite coach who arrived with an unbeaten league campaign on his CV. Conte installed a back three, benefited from having no European football and found a tactical structure that maximised the qualities of his best players.
Alonso now inherits remarkably similar circumstances.
He took Bayer Leverkusen from near the Bundesliga relegation places to becoming Germany’s first unbeaten champions. Chelsea have backed him heavily in the transfer market, his preferred formation appears increasingly suited to the squad, and he has the enormous advantage of uninterrupted training weeks without European football.
Most importantly, Palmer’s performance against Fulham provided an early indication that Chelsea’s most gifted attacker could be rediscovering his best form.
There are tougher tests ahead and the defensive vulnerabilities seen at Craven Cottage cannot be ignored.
But the ingredients are there.
Ten years after Conte turned a 10th-placed Chelsea into Premier League champions, Alonso has an opportunity to attempt one of the most remarkable sequels in the club’s history.
Lwanele is the Content Manager for BetJets News and has dedicated six years to creating top-notch sports betting content for major bookmakers, establishing himself as a trusted source for betting advice. As the resident tipster for TAB’s popular TV show Racing Today, he specialises in cricket, MMA, and soccer betting. Known for his keen analysis and practical tips, Lwanele provides BetJets readers with the tools they need to approach betting with confidence and strategy.
