Chelsea 16/17 — Conte's Champions: Full Squad & Ratings

Chelsea 2016/17 season — all 18 players rated, best XI, and how to draft them in 38-0.

Chelsea 2016/17 — Season Story

Antonio Conte's first season at Chelsea is the story of the greatest tactical about-face in Premier League history. After a 3-0 defeat at Arsenal on 24 September 2016, with his 4-2-3-1 looking disjointed and the title already written off by pundits, Conte switched to a 3-4-3. Chelsea then won thirteen league games in a row — a record equalled but never beaten until Manchester City's run of 2017/18 — and ran away with the title by seven points.

The system made players look reborn. Victor Moses, a winger who had spent years on loan, became one of the best wing-backs in Europe on the right; Marcos Alonso, signed from Fiorentina as a left-back, thrived on the left; and David Luiz, brought back from Paris Saint-Germain, stepped into a back three where his passing could flourish. Behind them Thibaut Courtois kept goal, and in front of them N'Golo Kante cleaned up everything.

Kante's season was the stuff of awards: he became the first player to win back-to-back Premier League titles with different clubs, and added the PFA Players' Player of the Year award to the title he had won with Leicester the year before. Eden Hazard played the best football of his Chelsea career, Diego Costa bullied defences and finished as the league's joint-top scorer among the title challengers, and Cesc Fabregas reinvented himself as a deep-lying playmaker.

Chelsea finished with 93 points, winning the league by seven clear of Tottenham, and their record of 30 wins from 38 games remains one of the best in Premier League history. The FA Cup final ended in disappointment — a 2-1 defeat to Arsenal — but the league campaign had been so dominant that the season is remembered as Conte's masterpiece, and the 2016/17 squad is rightly rated one of the strongest in the 38-0 pool.

The 3-4-3 Switch That Changed Everything

The decision was born of desperation. Chelsea had lost at home to Liverpool and been beaten 3-0 at the Emirates, and Conte's first-choice shape was not working. The 3-4-3 he introduced was simple in design: three centre-backs, two wing-backs providing the width, a double pivot of Kante and Nemanja Matic, and a front three of Hazard, Costa and Pedro or Willian.

The effect was immediate and total. Chelsea won their next thirteen league matches, conceding just twice in the process. The wing-backs gave the team natural width without leaving gaps, the back three allowed David Luiz to step forward with the ball, and Hazard suddenly had space to run at defenders. Thirteen wins from 24 September to 31 December turned a faltering start into a title procession.

The 13-Game Winning Run

From matchday 7 to matchday 19, Chelsea did not drop a single point. The run included wins over Manchester United, Everton and Tottenham, and it effectively ended the title race before the new year — no team in Premier League history had ever opened such a gap so early.

The run was built on the meanest defence in the league: Chelsea conceded just 15 goals in the first 19 games, and Courtois kept clean sheets in nine of the thirteen wins. When Tottenham briefly closed the gap in the spring, Chelsea responded by winning seven of their last nine, and the title was confirmed with two games to spare.

Kante: The One-Man Midfield

N'Golo Kante arrived from Leicester for 32 million pounds and made the difference instantly. His reading of the game was supernatural — he intercepted passes before they happened, covered ground that two midfielders normally cover, and gave Chelsea's attack the platform to play with freedom. The stats: most tackles and interceptions in the league among midfielders, and a pass completion rate that made him the perfect link between defence and attack.

The PFA award recognised what everyone had seen — Kante was the best midfielder in England, and arguably the best in Europe. In the 38-0 dataset he is rated 88 OVR as a defensive midfielder, the joint-highest rating in this squad alongside Hazard, and the kind of player every draft team needs in the middle of the pitch.

Key Players & Ratings

Eden Hazard (90 OVR) is the highest-rated player on this page and one of the top ten in the entire 38-0 pool — a left winger with the close control of a street footballer and the end product of a superstar. Thibaut Courtois (88) and N'Golo Kante (88) give the squad elite options in goal and midfield, Diego Costa (87) provides the goals, and Cesar Azpilicueta (86) anchors the defence.

The squad averages 82.5 OVR, well above the 80.7 pool average, and the depth is real: David Luiz (84), Fabregas (84), Matic (83), Willian (83) and Pedro (83) are all quality picks. This is one of the strongest and most balanced squads in the pool, with no genuinely weak position in the starting eleven.

Full 18-Man Squad

Best XI — Chelsea 2016/17

The highest-rated eleven available from this squad in 38-0:

• GK Thibaut Courtois 88 OVR
• RCB César Azpilicueta 86 OVR
• CB David Luiz 84 OVR
• LCB Gary Cahill 83 OVR
• CDM N'Golo Kanté 88 OVR
• CDM Nemanja Matić 83 OVR
• CM Cesc Fàbregas 84 OVR
• RW Willian 83 OVR
• RW Pedro 83 OVR
• LW Eden Hazard 90 OVR
• ST Diego Costa 87 OVR

Drafting This Squad in 38-0

This is a premium landing: almost any pick improves an all-time XI. The best value is in the spine — Courtois solves the goalkeeper position, Kante is the ultimate defensive midfielder, Hazard is a game-changing winger, and Costa is a proven 20-goal striker. Decide by need and you cannot go far wrong.

In Legend mode, remember the hierarchy: Hazard and Kante at 88-90, Courtois at 88, then a deep second tier. The trap is the opposite of the value squads — here even a mid-tier pick like Pedro or Matic is excellent, so the only mistake would be passing a top-three name for a position you already have covered.

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