3 changes Chelsea fans hope to see under Conte

The coaching carousel seemed to come to a grinding halt at Stamford Bridge under Jose Mourinho, but Roman Abramovich has once again installed a new face on Chelsea's sidelines.

It came at just the right time, as Guus Hiddink, the Blues' perennial interim boss, departed the club to round off an altogether worried 2015-16 campaign. The Italian tactician has his work cut out for him at Chelsea, with the Premier League boasting considerably heightened levels of talent this season.

Here are three things Chelsea fans will hope to see change under Conte:

A rejuvenated Diego Costa and Eden Hazard

To put it bluntly, Costa and Hazard did not have great years last season. So poor was his performances that Hazard, who came into the year as the PFA Player of the Season from 2014-15, was dropped from the starting lineup entirely at times during the tumultuous campaign.

These two attackers cannot endure a similar fate a second year in a row.

That both were slated to exit Stamford Bridge by the British rags throughout July is a testament to how quickly the tides of change flowed through the club. It seems the two have reaffirmed their commitments to Chelsea and will stick around for at least one more season, and Conte will need to get the best out of these two talents if success is to be found.

A team-first aggressive, direct style of play

Chelsea's biggest asset under Mourinho was its style of play, often derided by opposition fans and managers for its defensive focus and, at times, negative football. Conte is by no means a manager like Mourinho, but he's just as tactically strict, if not more so, and a departure to the realm of free-flowing football isn't quite on the table at Stamford Bridge.

Conte's teams play as the sum of their parts, a strength Chelsea has shown in its most successful years, and while defensive discipline is key, Conte's best ability has been in squeezing as much talent out of individual players as possible for the benefit of the whole.

A Chelsea team that plays fast, direct, counter-attacking football with aggression and precision is what Conte will likely work to deliver and it's a style Blues fans have hungered for after long stretches under Mourinho's win-at-all-costs philosophy.

Reliability when it counts

A huge factor to Chelsea supporters' woes last season didn't come in the team's eventual 10th-place finish, but in the way the Blues squandered chances and threw away points at the dying embers of a match.

Chelsea was on its way to collecting points on nine occasions last season before conceding goals in the final 15 minutes to either tie or lose and ultimately drop 17 points:

It's not an easy problem to fix, but Conte will need to bring some consistency back to Chelsea's defensive ranks. Far too shaky throughout 2015-16, Chelsea's central defenders were too fragile in matches final moments, whether through fatigue or mental lapses.

The signing of defensive midfielder N'Golo Kante might help, but Conte will need to restore the players' confidence off the field so they can perform on it with some resilience and trademark fight.