Premier League 2015-16 preview: How Chelsea will line up this season

Rounding up the major ins and outs, we look at how each team’s formation might have been altered by the events of the summer, and which players can expect to play a starring role as others fade into the background.

[TITLE CONTENDERS: How Arsenal will line up this season]

We continue with Chelsea…

Underwhelming. Sunday’s Community Shield witnessed an event which has sometimes felt rarer than the passing of Halley’s Comet: a victory for Arsene Wenger over Jose Mourinho as Arsenal won 1-0 at Wembley. In fact, Chelsea are without a win so far this summer, having lost 4-2 to a second-string New York Red Bulls side and then drawn 1-1 with PSG and 2-2 with Barcelona during their trip to America. But, as Jose Mourinho was at pains to point out following the Red Bulls defeat, "Pre-season is fake, for good and for bad. If you're very bad it's fake, and if you're too good it's fake.”

PLAYERS IN: Asmir Begovic (Stoke City, £8m); Radamel Falcao (Monaco, loan); Danilo Pantic (Partizan Belgrade); Nathan (Atletico Paranaense, £4.5m)

PLAYERS OUT: Petr Cech (Arsenal, £10m); Christian Atsu (Bournemouth, loan); Patrick Bamford (Crystal Palace, loan); Filipe Luis (Atletico Madrid, £16m); Marco van Ginkel (Stoke, loan)

Chelsea’s summer signings hardly point to a tactical revolution; it is doubtful whether the starting XI will be affected at all when they start the new season. Begovic is a back-up for Thibaut Courtois while Falcao is likely to spend prolonged spells on the bench. Even if their dogged pursuit of John Stones ends successfully, it is hard to see how the Everton and England defender will displace either John Terry or Gary Cahill – certainly in the short term.

But that is not to say that we won’t see something a bit different from Chelsea this season. If we can almost guarantee a back four of Cesar Azpilicueta and Branislav Ivanovic either side of Terry and Cahill, things are somewhat more unpredictable at the other end of the pitch, especially with Diego Costa missing the Community Shield due to another hamstring injury, with his participation in Saturday’s match against Swansea in doubt.

[COMMENT: Diego Costa injury set to haunt Chelsea again - but write him off at your peril]

If Costa is to miss out at the weekend then one of Falcao and Loic Remy will replace him in attack in a simple swap. But when all three centre-forwards are fit, things get interesting. Mourinho hinted in an interview during pre-season that he could deploy a new formation at times this season which could partner two attackers at once.

“Being more unpredictable is to have different ways to play,” said Mourinho. “With the strikers we have, we can play with two strikers together more than we did before. We have three very good strikers, and all of them with special motivations. We have options to be different and to be more unpredictable. We can create problems for the opposition when they play against us. We can play with two strikers or one, so we have more options.”

Costa and Falcao played in tandem for Atletico Madrid on a number of occasions and would seem to be the most likely pairing if Mourinho does employ such an approach - and if Falcao does start to rediscover his best form. It seems highly unlikely that Mourinho will abandon the one-striker formulation which has brought him so much success, but there could be an element of evolution when the opportunity presents itself.

Assuming Costa does recover in time for the season’s opening fixture against Swansea, the Chelsea team will have a very familiar look to it. Ramires started in the Community Shield against Arsenal and it is a fair assumption that Chelsea will continue with Cesc Fabregas in a more advanced role at the expense of Oscar.

But what if Mourinho does decide to use two strikers, as he has intimated? Perhaps this is how Chelsea will line-up on occasion next season: