After the disappointment of seeing his Chelsea team completely outplayed in the 1-0 defeat to Manchester City with record signing Alvaro Morata limping off in the process, Antonio Conte will have been looking for some positives. Yet the news that N'Golo Kante suffered a hamstring injury on international duty with France will only have darkened his mood even further.
Conte has already had to do without Eden Hazard, the club's most naturally gifted footballer, for the first month of the new season. Now he faces the prospect of facing at least one match, though quite possibly many more, without the services of arguably his two other most important players.