How Antonio Conte's Chelsea could have looked with Virgil van Dijk & Romelu Lukaku

Antonio Conte's debut season at Chelsea was a memorable one. The Blues romped to the Premier League title, breaking the record for most wins in a single campaign after emerging victorious in 30 of their 38 Games in 2016/17.

And yet, they could have been even better the following year had Conte had been handed his top transfer targets in 2017's summer window.

The boss has spoken openly over the past few years about how Chelsea met with Virgil van Dijk and Romelu Lukaku that summer, but neither deal ended up coming to fruition and Conte would find himself out of a job just 12 months later - a conclusion which would be tough to imagine if both Van Dijk and Lukaku had made the move to Stamford Bridge when he wanted them.

Here's how Conte's Chelsea could have looked in 2017/18 if he landed his men.

Goalkeeper

Thibaut Courtois

Courtois was an integral part of Chelsea's Premier League title success, with his 16 clean sheets firmly entering him into the conversation about the best goalkeeper on the planet.

He recorded 15 clean sheets in 2017/18 - a figure which would likely be higher with Van Dijk in front of him - before burning his bond with Chelsea fans by admitting his desire to return to Madrid and refusing to return for pre-season. Real Madrid would sign him soon after.

Defence

Cesar Azpilicueta, Andreas Christensen, Virgil van Dijk

Chelsea's 2017 summer shopping spree is widely seen as one of the worst in History - £156m on Tiemoue Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater, Davide Zappacosta and Alvaro Morata will do that to you - but the only player they struck gold on was Antonio Rudiger. However, the German would likely not have joined that summer had Van Dijk been given his spot first.

The switch to a three-man defence was pretty much the entire foundation of Chelsea's title success in 2016/17. On the right was Cesar Azpilicueta, the ever-faithful defender who blossomed into an assist king in Conte's second year.

David Luiz was the linchpin in the centre in 2016/17 and was the starter when the new season arrived before a series of knee and ankle injuries limited him to just nine starts that year. Van Dijk, who was at Southampton at the time, could have been given this central spot but it was also at this time that Andreas Christensen was starting to find his feet. The Dane keeps his place here if we're assuming Rudiger never joined.

Van Dijk would grab the third spot, taking the minutes away from Gary Cahill in the process.

Midfield

Victor Moses, Cesc Fabregas, N'Golo Kante, Marcos Alonso

Chelsea made the surprising decision to sell Nemanja Matic to Manchester United in the summer of 2017, leaving N'Golo Kante and Cesc Fabregas as Conte's preferred pairing. The ill-fated Bakayoko would also see plenty of minutes, while Drinkwater was an expensive emergency option.

Out wide, the resurgent Victor Moses had reinvented himself as a wing-back and was an integral part of the team across both of Conte's seasons at the helm. Over on the other side, the iconic image of Marcos Alonso holding three fingers up as Chelsea found their new formation will forever remain embedded in the minds of Blues fans.

Attack

Willian, Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard

Lukaku netted 25 goals for Everton in Chelsea's title-winning season and had firmly established himself as an elite hitman. He would go on to join Manchester United in 2017 for £75m, linking up with Jose Mourinho at Old Trafford, with Chelsea pursuing a £58m deal for Morata instead.

Had he returned to Chelsea in 2017, rather than 2021, he would have had the chance to play alongside Belgium national team colleague Eden Hazard, who was the Blues' leading scorer in the Premier League in 2017/18. Morata had a hot start but would quickly cool and end the year with just 11 goals, while Lukaku hit 16 in the league in his first year in Manchester.

Lukaku would famously go on to link up with Conte at Inter, and it was under the Italian that he recovered from his slump in form, won the Serie A title and convinced Chelsea to finally pull the trigger on a £97.5m deal to re-sign him in 2021...we all know how that went. Had Lukaku and Conte teamed up at Chelsea in 2017, the striker's peak years may have lasted a lot longer.

Rounding out the team was usually Willian, but Conte would often rotate him with Pedro.

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