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"The second year is harder," confirmed Frank Lampard on BT Sport during Chelsea's defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield on Sunday. Antonio Conte knows it too.
The Italian has been vocal in asserting his belief that 2017/18 will be very difficult indeed and the unconvincing performance his team delivered in that game will cause concern.
Chelsea say that transfers are coming and clearly they are needed. The squad is weaker than last season, those same players have suffered a slump once before and quite a few of Chelsea's title rivals have either copied their 3-4-3 formation or figured out a way to play against it.
It might be time for Plan B. What's up Conte's sleeve?
If you don't move forward, you go backward
Conte isn't married to any particular tactical setup. As we saw last season, when Chelsea switched from their 4-2-4 to a 3-4-2-1 at half time in a 3-0 hiding to Arsenal, he isn't afraid to change and now that so many Premier League teams have copied drawn inspiration from Conte's three man defence, it might well be time to shake things up again.
“I won two championships with 4-2-4 at Bari and Siena,” Conte explained last season. “Then I started that system with Juventus, went to 4-3-3 and eventually arrived at 3-5-2 because I had players better adapted for that system. But it's not my ‘preferred’ system.
"My preferred system is the one that permits my team to win.”
The players Conte has managed to sign this summer may influence Chelsea's shape again this season - there is a clear strategy to buying those capable of operating in a number of different roles. Alvaro Morata can play anywhere across the attack and Antonio Rudiger is both a right-back and a centre-back - their signings are no accident.
In fact, most of the players Conte has in his squad are capable of playing in a variety of different positions already, which means he has the ability to switch formation during a match when he sees fit.
Two strikers... AT THE SAME TIME
In Eden Hazard's absence through injury, Conte has worked on a slightly different kind of attacking shape, usually allowing for one of the wide forwards to move into central positions depending on where his team have the ball.
Michy Batshuayi has played a lot of Chelsea's pre-season and if he is going to feature in Conte's first team plans, as his starting role in the Community Shield suggests he will, Conte needs to find room for record signing Morata in central areas too.
He can do this by borrowing from his Italy Euro 2016 tactics book. As Conte has said, he fits the system around the players, not the players to the system. The ones he picks decide the shape.
Cesc Fabregas has to play, he creates too many chances not to. To get the most out of him he needs to be in space, unmarked to have time to make the probing forward passes he is capable of.
The three man defence works and there's no need to change it - both David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta are capable of stepping up into midfield too. The three man defence means width has to come from wingers, who are also defensively aware.
This is near identical to the set up Conte used during Euro 2016. If Fabregas plays deeper he can escape the attentions of a man-marker and if he swaps with Tiemoue Bakayoko, he can get into more advanced positions. With two central strikers both capable of winning headers in the box, Chelsea have a dangerous outlet for crosses from wide, and with two defensively minded central midfielders, are sure to hold their shape to avoid being caught out on the counter-attack.
Chelsea can completely alter their shape during a game, creating confusion in an opponent. If the 3-4-2-1 isn't working, Conte can switch to a 3-5-2 (which is basically what the 3-1-4-2 is), or with one substitution, take a forward like Willian off and put on a central midfield player to help control the centre of the pitch. It worked in Euro 2016 - why not here?
A return to the 4-2-4
All of this is, of course, entirely hypothetical but the players Conte has signed and is apparently targeting are capable of playing in a few different positions. Tactical fluidity during a game could be integral to Chelsea retaining an edge over Premier League opponents this season.
Last time around, Chelsea started with a 4-2-4 before making the move to that 3-4-3 formation, and it is absolutely possible we will see something similar again during this campaign - especially when Chelsea come up against a three man defence.
If Chelsea start with Hazard, Morata and Batshuayi and discover that Morata isn't doing much on the right of attack, or try a 3-4-1-2 with Hazard in behind and find their path to goal blocked, Conte can flip a switch, shuffle the defenders across and attempt to overload the opposition in a 4-2-4.
It's a direct, attacking style of play but this is something Conte seems to like. Rather than go into lock down to see out a match, the Italian has occasionally tried to attack late on, forcing the opposition to work even harder to defend. If they don't, space is left behind for Chelsea's attackers to dominate... and they end up controlling possession. It's defending by attacking.
Of course, there is a chance that Conte will simply look to recreate what he did last season using the same formation and style of play which worked well. But his work at other clubs suggests this is not a manager who waits too long to make big decisions, and certainly not one who lacks an eye for detail.
With the squad looking decidedly thin, motivation and innovation will be the keys to Chelsea staying on top. Conte pulled off a masterstroke last season, he shouldn't be scared to attempt another.