Chelsea manager Antonio Conte keen to avoid another 'Jose Mourinho season' and keep Blues at the top of the Premier League table

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Antonio Conte fears he is locked in a fight to avoid becoming the third manager in a row to be sacked as a champion.

A difficult pre-season has taken its toll on Chelsea's plans with injuries to key players and frustrations in the transfer market.

As the new campaign looms, the Italian feels there is still much work to do to avoid the fate which befell Jose Mourinho and Claudio Ranieri. 

Chelsea manager Antonio Conte pictured during their 2-1 friendly loss to Inter Milan 

Conte jokes with Inter Milan manager Luciano Spalletti during the match in Singapore

'We know the next season will be tough,' said Conte. 'We want to avoid what happened in the previous season for Chelsea, two years ago, when the team finished in 10th place in the Premier League.

'We want to try to avoid this and I want to try to avoid what happened two seasons ago.

'Two coaches have been sacked from Chelsea and Leicester after winning the league and I want to avoid this and the players want to avoid the bad season they had with Mourinho.

'We are working very well and we hope to find the best solution in the future. We have a lot of young players and if necessary we will have to try to put these players.'

Mourinho was fired in December 2015, seven months after winning the Premier League for the third time as Chelsea manager.   

Jose Mourinho, now Manchester United manager, was sacked by Chelsea just months after guiding them to the Premier League title

Stevan Jovetic opened the scoring for Inter Milan against Chelsea in Singapore on Saturday

Ranieri led Leicester to the first title in their history but that did not spare him the sack as they slipped towards relegation danger last season.

'Antonio has to think about whether he wants to be champion this year,' quipped Mourinho, back in February.

Both Ranieri and Mourinho would reflect with hindsight on problems which had been rooted in pre-season.

Conte, too, has run into his share of complications. Some, admittedly, of his own creation.

Transfer targets including Romelu Lukaku and Kyle Walker slipped away and Diego Costa and Nemanja Matic were told they could leave.

Tiemoue Bakayoko did sign but arrived injured and will miss the start of the campaign, as will Eden Hazard, who broke an ankle on international duty at the end of last season.

Pedro Rodriguez was sent home from the tour after suffering facial fractures in a friendly against Arsenal.

With several young players sold and loaned and John Terry released, Conte's options are suddenly limited and he has used roughly the same team in three friendlies on tour in venues where the heat has been stifling and the training sessions have been gruelling. 

Ivan Perisic - a transfer target for Manchester United - doubled Inter's lead after half-time

Inter's players celebrate after Perisic doubled their advantage against Chelsea

'We are very tired,' said the Chelsea manager.

He has made no secret of his desire to see more players recruited and the club expect to see the process accelerate in the week ahead.

Against Inter Milan, £70million centre-forward Alvaro Morata, the club's record signing, was deployed on the left with Michy Batshuayi up front through the middle.

'It was a necessity because I haven't other players,' said the Chelsea manager. 'He's working well. He has to improve his condition and get quickly into our idea of football.

'He's only been with us for five days and he tried to do his best what we asked him to do.'

Antonio Rudiger, a £32m defender from Roma, made his debut in the 2-1 defeat in Singapore, when Chelsea were helped back into the game by a spectacular own-goal, fired into the top corner of his own net from a full 40 yards by Inter substitute Geoffrey Kondogbia.

Stevan Jovetic put the Italians ahead, converting the rebound after Thibaut Courtois had saved a very harshly-awarded penalty in the first-half. 

Inter manager Spalletti insisted that Antonio Candreva was not going to be sold this summer

Manchester United target Ivan Persic added the second after the interval and Inter hung on. Bathsuayi had a late goal ruled out for offside.

Antonio Candreva, one of Conte's transfer targets, started for Inter and their boss Luciano Spalletti dismissed the idea that the 30-year-old winger was set to be sold for £15m.

'Absolutely not,' said Spalletti. 'A lot things happened during this summer in the market and this is another thing. But this is not true. We intend to keep Candreva. Even if we were to sell him we would need to bring in another wide player.'

Inter had asked to take Anthony Martial on loan as part of the negotiations with Manchester United about Perisic and they will be determined not to lose both wingers in one transfer window.

Asked about the value of Perisic to the team, Spalletti said: 'What is important is the team. For the last few years Perisic has played in Inter and with Perisic we don't win nothing. The team is important. Not one player.'