After last season’s finish, the Blues will not feature in European competition this year. While a club of Chelsea’s size aims to avoid that, playing just once a week does have its upsides.
Since 2010-11, when the so-called ‘Big Six’ – Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City, Man Utd and Tottenham – first all finished in the Premier League’s top six together, there have been nine instances of those clubs going without European football. Chelsea and Tottenham are set to join that group this season.
In all but one of those cases, the team improved its league finish, climbing an average of five places and collecting 16 more points than the previous campaign.
Conte’s Chelsea made the most of it by winning the title, while Liverpool came close in 2013-14. After finishing seventh the year before, the lack of European fixtures helped them add 23 points, but they ultimately finished two behind champions Manchester City.