Chelsea ended up 5th last season but Blues legend Dennis Wise is hopeful that Chelsea can close the gap with Manchester City and be the “surprise package” of the season.
Chelsea are outsiders for the league, with many tipping Manchester City and Liverpool for the top prize, but new manager Maurizio Sarri could just bring out the best from his squad.
Wise believes that with Chelsea under less pressure, they can go on to surprise the rest of the league.
“I think everyone is looking at Man City, they had 100 points last season. Nineteen points ahead of Man United and 30 points ahead of Chelsea so that’s a big gulf to catch up,” the former Chelsea captain exclusively told Goal.
“They have done it in such a commanding way, that you have to catch them.
“We are hoping that a little bit of complacency creeps in [at Man City]. You look at Chelsea, they did very well when Antonio Conte came in for his first season and won the league. I don’t think anyone expected that to happen.
“I think the expectations at Chelsea this year is people are not expecting them to win the league. What you need to do is to see how it pans out. I think it could be quite interesting because Chelsea have a lot of quality players but they never hit it off.
“Whether that was internal or inside the dressing room, who knows, but now there is a fresh start. They could be a surprise package again, Chelsea. Everyone is expecting Man City to win it and Liverpool to press them because of the amount of money that they have spent.
“Liverpool plugged gaps where they needed and I think they have really spent well but now the expectations are there as well. So they have to live with those expectations. I think those are the two teams that people will be looking at, Man City and Liverpool.
“Hopefully Chelsea can creep in through the back door because no one is expecting that to happen.”