Chelsea lack depth and quality... Antonio Conte is angry because his squad is going backwards after their title-winning season

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When Chelsea went to Wembley to play Tottenham last April, in the run-up to the match, you wondered whether it might be a pivotal moment. 

After all, Chelsea had just lost to Crystal Palace and Manchester United; Tottenham were chasing them down in the league; and though there were no points at stake in an FA Cup semi-final, you knew that if Spurs could just land a psychological blow, maybe it would turn the whole season.

Of course, Chelsea won the match 4-2, which provided the momentum to finish the job in the Premier League. But what was even more significant that day was Chelsea's bench. 

Antonio Conte is not entirely happy with his squad after losing key players over the summer

Manchester United new boy Nemanja Matic scored when Chelsea beat Tottenham at Wembley 

Antonio Conte started the game without Diego Costa, Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas. When it was 2-2, he could bring on Hazard and Costa and then, later, Fabregas. Hazard broke the deadlock and Nemanja Matic sealed the win with a stunning goal.

The fact that Conte could draw on players of that quality when necessary illustrated the gap between Chelsea and Spurs. One had a great starting XI, but the other had some depth to their squad. If you had said to me that day that Chelsea would be heading back to Wembley on Sunday to play Spurs with a significantly weaker squad, I would have laughed in disbelief.

Everything was set up for Chelsea this summer to kick on again. As champions, it's a lot easier to build a squad. You have momentum and players want to come. It was a key moment. Though Conte had more depth than Tottenham for that semi-final, it was clear through last season that Chelsea didn't have the kind of depth that Manchester City, United or even Arsenal had. 

He had salvaged the season with a change of tactics, his superb use of Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso, who we wouldn't have seen as being key to a title-winning side, and by benefiting from the lack of European fixtures. Chelsea's board of directors, to some extent, got away with it.

But having succeeded against the odds, you might have expected the club to build on those foundations to ensure they were odds-on to succeed in future, not least because the demands of being in the Champions League require a much larger squad.

The performances of Real Madrid against United and against Barcelona in midweek showed, once again, the gulf that exists between our best teams and the best in Europe. 

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has always aspired to that trophy, which is why winning it in 2012 meant so much. But if he is serious about competing again at that level, he needs to build again.

Put bluntly, Chelsea are weaker today than in April. None of those players on the bench are available to Conte, nor is Matic. 

Matic was allowed to leave Chelsea after Manchester United launched a £40million bid

Fabregas and Hazard will come back and the absence of Costa you might argue is Conte's own doing. But despite the signings of Alvaro Morata, Antonio Rudiger and Tiemoue Bakayoko, far from getting stronger, Chelsea haven't improved. If anything, they have gone backwards.

Morata will be an excellent replacement for Costa. His movement, finishing and technique will ensure plenty of goals. However, Chelsea will still miss the fight and physicality of Costa and they will have to wait for Morata to adapt to the Premier League. 

Bakayoko may be good but the club have negated any positivity from his signing by selling Matic. But worse than that, while potentially weakening their own squad, they have provided the key piece of the jigsaw for a principal rival. And it doesn't help that Matic was so instrumental in United's 4-0 win against West Ham. On this issue, Conte has plenty of ammunition to demonstrate that the club's transfer dealings are making his difficult job even harder.

Because of a combination of Fabregas's foolishness, the board's misjudgments and Bakayoko's injury, Conte goes into this crucial game with N'Golo Kante his only proven central midfielder. Gary Cahill is suspended; Costa is AWOL. Hazard is injured. 

Gary Cahill will miss Chelsea's Premier League clash with Tottenham due to suspension

Chelsea have spent £126million. But they have also raised £110m by selling Matic, Nathan Ake, Juan Cuadrado, Asmir Begovic, Bertrand Traore, Christian Atsu and Nathaniel Chalobah, with probably another £30m to come from Costa. So compared with the net spend of their rivals, Chelsea have taken a backward step.

And don't discount the importance of losing John Terry. Even though he didn't play much last season, he would have been a leader in the dressing room, a stabilising voice of experience.

Of course it's too early to predict calamity, even if Chelsea's recent history suggests they can go from title-winners to mediocre in a short space of time. They have lost only one game, there are still 11 days of the transfer window left and two key players — David Luiz and Marcos Alonso — arrived on August 31 last year.

They still have top-quality players who can ensure they compete at a reasonable level. But it must be clear to everyone at the club, not just Conte, that this current squad isn't good enough or deep enough to retain the league title. If they're not busy in the next week, then it's going to be one of those fractious seasons in which Chelsea seem to specialise.

... but what was he doing axing Costa by text message?

Having been a manager, I have plenty of sympathy with Antonio Conte in dealing with an emotional character like Diego Costa. As a manager, all you want to do is focus on what you have and the games ahead rather than worry about players who aren’t available to you and the political problems they may be causing.

But, given all that, I still found it hard to believe that Conte had chosen to inform Costa he was no longer in his plans via text message.

It may be the case, as Conte has said, that this shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Costa, if the striker had been agitating for a move for some time. But even so, you’d surely want that meeting face to face.

Diego Costa has refused to return to Chelsea after a row with Conte over a text message

We don’t know what went on last season, how emphatic Costa was that he wanted to leave. But even so, you would sit him down, look him in the eye after the high of winning the title and say: ‘Now, do you still want to leave?’

And if he still did, then you would say you’d help him get a move; as long as he helped you. That would mean reporting for training, getting fit and looking sharp, so the club could get the best price. And, as a manager, you never know when you might need someone.

It would have been useful to call on Costa now, even just for August. Conte looks like he has been let down by the board in some areas. But here, he has made a bad situation worse.