Chelsea can forget Tottenham and Arsenal - Manchester United are the real title contenders for Antonio Conte

If things really have gone wrong at Chelsea, we will find out soon enough.

There are now as many as seven stand-out teams battling for the coveted top four Premier League places this season following Everton’s summer spending spree.

Antonio Conte’s reigning champions play four of them in the opening seven fixtures - Tottenham away and then Everton, Arsenal and Manchester City at home all before the end of September.

It would be a tough start by any measure. But if they were in the mood which brought them a record 30 wins last season, such a run might be seen as exactly what they might want to lay down a marker and inflict some damage on their rivals.

Instead, there is a niggling level of uncertainty and doubt surrounding the team. And it is Conte who has helped make it that way, and cranked up the pressure which now demands that Chelsea make a good start.

It is extraordinary, really, when you stop to consider it by the rules of business which exist outside of the illogical bubble of the football world.

The suggestion that there are problems has all been Chelsea’s own work as Conte has grimaced and groaned his way through pre-season, making it plain that his squad simply isn’t strong enough.

It has also come only three months after what was touted at the time as the beginning of the first truly settled spell at the club for decades.

Chelsea would be under massive pressure to make a good start in any circumstances, as are all the top sides. That is the nature of the competition.

But there’s an intriguing X-factor in the works in west London. This pressure is inflated and skewed now - and it’s not because Chelsea will be expected to live up to an expectation that they are the best side in the land, as they were last time around.

Instead, it’s because the game is watching to see if things have turned sour for the Italian’s regime too quickly. And that fixture schedule puts them under instant scrutiny.

Football’s radar is twitching in an attempt to discover what was really behind the under-cooked performance Conte’s players delivered in the Community Shield defeat by Arsenal.

In most frenetically inflated summer transfer window in history, the bookies’ favourites for the title are Manchester City. This seems to be based on the fact that they’ve spent the most, rather than any fresh evidence that Pep Guardiola’s genius will sweep all before him.

By contrast, Conte’s apparent discontent at Stamford Bridge is based on the fact that his squad hasn’t been supplemented in the same way. And, at the same time, key players like Nemanja Matic have been allowed to join and strengthen rivals Manchester United.

You could argue that the duty of the manager is not to gripe and scowl, but to face up to circumstances and drive the team to meet things head on. After all, Conte has landed a new £70million striker in Alvaro Morata.

But surely his realisation is that in this era of the Premier League, most big spending takes place merely to ensure that the big clubs keep up with each other. And that the margins at the top are so fine that he cannot allow rivals like Guardiola and United’s Jose Mourinho even minor advantages which their purchases bring with them.

That is why Conte wants more. It is why he will probably get it.

But his re-modelling work is already well behind that of Guardiola and Mourinho.

In a title race which will be more intense than ever, that may already be a critical factor legislating against another Chelsea triumph.

My belief is that Mourinho and Manchester United will replace them as champions. The Special One has been a second-season specialist at nearly every port of call. But it is the sheer physical power of the side he has constructed around Romelu Lukaku, Paul Pogba and now Matic that will swing it his way.

The superb performances of Guardiola’s City side in brushing aside both Spurs and West Ham in pre-season suggest his scheme to instil the relentless style of his old Barcelona passing carousel is far advanced now. But I believe they will still be undone by their defending.

They will likely contest the runners-up spot with Chelsea, if Conte gets the reinforcements he demands.

That will leave Arsenal and Spurs in a battle for the coveted fourth place.

Arsene Wenger’s team looked tougher than usual in both their recent defeats of Chelsea at Wembley. The fans were expecting more than the £52m signing of Alexandre Lacazette . But last Sunday, he looked ready for English football. And if Danny Welbeck remains fit for once - and Alexis Sanchez stays - the Gunners will be potent up front.

There have been plenty of hopeful dawns like this at the Emirates, of course. Another failure to make the most of it early on will put Wenger under severe pressure.

Tottenham are bucking the trend by keeping their cash in their pocket. It is a bold and welcome statement of belief in the current line-up. It is typical of the assured and certain ways of Mauricio Pochettino.

But Chelsea’s Conte was correct when he said there isn’t the same pressure upon the Argentine to win the title.

By normal standards, there would be a huge demand upon Spurs to turn the promise of the past two seasons into something more tangible.

The trouble is that the temporary move to Wembley skews all predictions and foresight. We just don’t know how it will affect them - and that’s a plain fact which has entered the equation at an importune time for the club, who really are on the cusp of re-joining the elite now.

West Ham looked lost in that final pre-season game against City in Rekjavik, when they were beaten 3-0.

They have bought well and, crucially, they have added some physical prowess to the line-up in the shape of Pablo Zabaleta and Marko Arnautovic.

This much-needed ramping up of their physical strength may stiffen their mental resolve, too.

We will find that out when they eventually get to play at home after the interruptions of the World Athletics Championships. The fractious first season at the London Stadium was punctuated by embarrassing defeats by City - twice – Arsenal, and Liverpool. It cannot happen again.

At Crystal Palace, there has been another shift as they attempt to pin down some form of identity.

It was the pragmatic ways of Sam Allardyce which saved them from the drop last season, paving the way for the arrival of Dutch master Frank de Boer as manager.

This is an upgrade for the club. They have finally joined the ranks of the teams with the famous foreign managers. It is a symbol of long-term ambition.

De Boer has made it clear, though, that there will be no transformation to Total Football overnight.

The transition at Selhurst Park will have to be gradual. First, Palace will have to fight.

De Boer has acknowledged that. His brief experience in British football at Rangers has taught him what to expect.

His instincts are correct. But Palace have now been in the top flight for the longest spell in their history. They could be on the brink of a bold new era.