Little needs writing about the horror show of a season Chelsea endured at Stamford Bridge last season, not least about the unenviable record the Blues set in the process.

Tipped to retain - or at least fight for - the title they won in May 2015 under Jose Mourinho, at the end of a high-scoring, 87-point season, their tenth-placed finish was the lowest of any league champion in the Premier League era, and proved almost as shocking as passing on the trophy to Claudio Ranieri's Leicester.

But with their riches, global appeal and star-studded squad, lightning was never likely to strike twice.

New boss Antonio Conte has shown his mettle this summer already, taking what appeared on paper Italy's worst team for decades to the narrowest of defeats against Germany in the Euro 2016 quarter-finals.

Not that he had anything to prove; the three-time Serie A winner as Juventus manager has won 28 and drawn two of his last 31 league games, the most recent Monday's late 2-1 win over West Ham as he made his Chelsea bow.

When the club gave Jose Mourinho the boot in December last year, and sat only one point above the relegation zone, you would have expected wholesale changes to follow in the summer at Stamford Bridge.

But, in part down to Guus Hiddink's steadying of the Chelsea ship rumoured to be rocked by the likes of Eden Hazard and Cesc Fabregas, only two incomings, Michy Batshuayi from Marseille, and N'Golo Kante from Leicester, have materialised.

No one sums up Chelsea's recovery better than Hazard, their star man for three years, who took until April to score his first Premier League goal of the season in the last campaign.

Fast forward to this weekend, and the Belgian has five in his last six league games - the first being that overdue strike last season - and he is, at long last, looking back to his best in a Blues shirt.

But Chelsea do not have the greatest of histories at Vicarage Road. They have visited the Hornets three times in the Premier League, winning only once, thanks to Solomon Kalou's last-minute goal in 2007.

The game will also see Conte and Watford boss Walter Mazzarri lock horns for the eighth time, carrying on from regular encounters when they both managed in Serie A.

Mazzarri will be hoping for better luck than he has endured in their last six meetings, however, which ended in three draws and three wins for Conte's old club, Juventus.