What do you have to do to get a game around here?

It's not often I sit at Stamford Bridge with a silly grin on my face. Not that it's a moribund place - far from it (along with the inherent wit and banter, right now under Maurizio Sarri, Chelsea are playing the kind of football that just makes you smile) - but I'm talking about one of those goofy, supercilious grins, the kind you sport when you're in love or watching a child just being a child.

The occasion was last night watching Ruben Loftus-Cheek scoring a hat-trick against the hapless Belarus champions BATE Borisov in the Europa League equivalent of a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition against the Washington Generals. Actually, it wasn't just the hat-trick (the first homegrown Chelsea player to score one since Clive Walker in 1982...), it was the way RLC used his height, his pace and towering physique to score three goals that Chelsea's recognised strikers, Álvaro Morata and Olivier Giroud, can currently only dream of netting. No wonder the Stamford Bridge faithful sang giddily: "One of our own, he's one of our own, Loftus-Cheek, he's one of our own".

Players who've come through the club's academy are always afforded extra love at Chelsea. Perhaps a tad blindly, we've offered unconditional support to such youngsters, even when their developed quality has been somewhere off the quality of players Chelsea have bought in from the European and South American meritocracy. You've got to learn somehow - the trouble is, Chelsea's first team is not the environment, even if the Chelsea Academy is.

Loftus-Cheek had more or less secured Chelsea's victory over BATE within the eight minutes he took to score his first two goals, but he didn't slacken off, even if it was obvious to the midfielder that Chelsea were playing, quite frankly, awful opposition. With Giroud, Willian and Pedro all on the pitch, it's amazing that the scoreline wasn't much higher (and the fact that BATE scored a consolation goal highlighted Chelsea's barely acknowledged defensive frailties). By the time RLC had knocked in his third past the wonderfully named goalkeeper Denis Scherbitski, it was obvious that this was now little more than a training game. But that didn't wipe the goofy grin off my face: indeed, it became even more fixed when 17-year-old Callum Hudson-Odoi came on for Pedro, setting off another bout of giddiness at the sight of an extraordinarily hot prospect within the Chelsea youth ranks. A shame, then, that such was the absence of proper opposition from the Belarus side that we didn't get to see much of what Hudson-Odoi can do (in brief appearances under Antonio Conte, he demonstrated delicious turns of speed and guile).

And so Chelsea will go to Burnley on Sunday with the 'regular' starting 11 restored. Some, like Eden Hazard (absent last night through back injury) and Sarri's former Napoli lieutenant Jorginho pick themselves. Others, like defenders César Azpilicueta and David Luiz appear to have made themselves indispensable, to the cost of Andreas Christensen and club captain Gary Cahill (who has always acquitted himself well when played, as he did last night). Serious questions will be asked about their futures come the opening of the January transfer window. Sarri's midfield queue is even harder to crack, and his options are envious. The worry is, however, that they are also the major obstacle blocking Loftus-Cheek's progress. "We have a tactical problem with the midfielders", Sarri told BT Sport after last night's game. "We have four midfielders and three of them have the same characteristics. They are offensive midfielders, only one has other characteristics - [N'Golo] Kante is a defensive midfielder. So it is very difficult to put in the starting eleven two midfielders with the same characteristics."

Loftus-Cheek was rightfully named Man Of The Match for his hat-trick performance last night, but that didn't stop Sarri being a permanent fixture in the 22-year-old's ear during the game, using every break in play to lecture the midfielder on his tactical positioning. However, one of the player's other qualities has been patience and a notable lack of whinging about his situation at Chelsea (after being selected by Gareth Southgate for the England World Cup squad, he didn't return for the recent internationals due to a lack of game time at his parent club), and even though he took Sarri's lecturing well, the Italian is clearly still not prepared to make him a regular fixture, with Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic, Kante and even Ross Barkley currently the favoured four in the middle. Even Cesc Fàbregas has been reduced to cameo appearances in cup games, like last night, though the 31-year-old's visibly slowing pace may have a lot to do with that.

Loftus-Cheek now has a dilemma - bide his time and eventually get more regular play as his relationship with Sarri grows ("At the beginning of the season he was a very good player," said Sarri last night, "and now he is a good player that is more suited to my style of football"), or cut his losses and push for a January move elsewhere, perhaps back to Crystal Palace where he was on loan last season. For his part, Loftus-Cheek has had the good grace to recognise his place: "Maurizio Sarri and I have a good relationship," he said last night. "I would be daft not to learn from a top manager. He is asking me to improve defensively and positionally. We are working on it every day in training and he is very demanding with the team. He is so demanding on shape, but also wants you to play freely as well, which I why we can play such free flowing football. It is really good work."

He does, though, recognise the position he's in. "I have never doubted my ability. It's just hard sometimes to perform at your best when you are not playing regularly. So it is important to train well, keep your good habits - eat well and sleep well - so that when games like [last night's] come along you can be as close to your best physical shape as possible. I will keep trying to do that and it's all I can do right now."

It would be a tragedy, though, if he did follow the exits of other rising Chelsea Academy stars, like Nathaniel Chalobah and Dominic Salanke, as well as earlier examples like Josh McEachran, unable to get regular playing time in the senior side. We fans' adoration for homegrown talent may be irrational, but there surely must be a place in football for a little bit of Roy Of The Rovers romanticism? It was nice to have that stupid grin on my face last night: it just would be nice to wear it more often.

Don't panic!! Well, not yet at least...

It's OK. No need to panic. Yes, I know we've been here before: a Community Shield encounter with Arsenal, a frustrated manager bemoaning the lack of signings, an apparent lack of confidence in front of goal, and a Premier League title to defend, but lightning can't strike twice, right? Right? Antonio Conte's gloomy fear of suffering "the Mourinho season", following an indifferent start that rapidly went downhill until the manager was sacked in December, can't happen again. Can it?

Based on the period since Chelsea lifted the Premier League trophy in May, it can. Not that it will, but the mood around the reigning English champions has been skittish to say the least. The parallels with the post-2015/16 season disaster are glaring, not least because of the manager's frustrations with the transfer activity (or lack of), but also in the fact that Antonio Conte - like Mourinho did shortly before that infamous opening game against Swansea on August 8, 2015 - has just signed an improved contract himself. Then there has been the substantial list of target players who've failed to show up, including Romelu Lukaku, gazumped by Manchester United.

Yesterday's draw at Wembley (settled with one of the more soul-crushing penalty shootouts you'll ever see without anyone wearing an England shirt) was another exercise in humility for Chelsea. Whatever hubris generated by last season has been reset to zero over the last few weeks. Beaten on that very turf, by the very same team, at the FA Cup Final in May, they exhibited none of the exciting swagger and even youthful exuberance of their compelling win over Arsenal during the pre-season tour in Singapore. In fact it was, too all intents and purposes, a complete re-run of the cup final, the game that determined that these two teams would meet again less than three months later at the same venue. That Victor Moses redeemed himself with a fine goal to erase the memory of a woeful performance in May that saw him sent off and Chelsea exposed, was negated by Pedro's rash raking of Mohamed Elneny's Achilles, the arguably extreme instant red card, and then Arsenal equalising from the subsequent free kick.

Twitter/Simon Johnson

The Community Shield is never billed as anything more than a curtain-raiser. Even Pedro's dismissal won't count when Chelsea kick off their title defence against Burnley next Saturday, as the Wembley game is considered a friendly. But as the Twitter cliché goes, there is no such thing as a friendly, especially when Chelsea and Arsenal meet. However, yesterday's game was an interesting, if subtle projection of managerial styles. Arsène Wenger stating in his post-match interview that he needs to cut down his first team squad of 33, with Antonio Conte reiterating his increasingly urgent need for signings - not that he needed to say anything.

There is still much to like about the Chelsea that won the 2016-17 English title, but there are also some glaring gaps. David Luiz - for all his charisma and chutzpah on the pitch - gave glimpses of his more maverick self yesterday. He's a wonderfully entertaining individual, but he also needs to remember that he's not infallible. He needs tougher competition for that position to keep him sharp. And Marcos Alonso, who sometimes doesn't get praised enough, can also easily demonstrate why he was something of a last-minute panic buy last summer.

But the bigger worry for me is that with Eden Hazard out injured, and Diego Costa resorting to doing workouts from the family garden in Brazil while he waits his return to Atlético Madrid, Chelsea are looking threadbare for real creativity. Alvaro Morata will get there, eventually, and Michy Batshuayi has come on leaps and bounds in the short space of time he's been leading the line, but even he looked profligate in front of goal yesterday. Pedro and Willian will continue to vie for starting roles in which their pace and guile can be applied, and Cesc Fàbregas will continue to supply inch-perfect passes - when he's allowed to play, and clearly at the cost of having the more defensive-minded Tiemoue Bakayoko play alongside Kante in the role he was bought for. But...

There are missing parts. Conte's summer refrain about signings has not been out of moody, Mourinho-style petulance, but a genuine concern that, while Chelsea's business dealings have seen a good amount of money come in for the likes of Nemanja Matic, Bertrand Traore, Nathan Aké and Nathaniel Chalobah, the £130 million spent so far on Antonio Rudiger, Bakayoko and Morata is not enough. In any normal time, and in any normal, non-inflationary market, £130 would be the most you could spend on a slew of signings. But we are not in a normal time, and Neymar's ridiculous move to PSG last week has merely poured a flammable liquid on the raging nonsense that is player valuations. Sadly, that means Chelsea will need to conform to this new reality if they're to bring in the players Conte wants and be able to compete with the affluence of domestic spenders like Manchesters United and City, or those they'll be facing this season in Europe.

The worry, though, is that time is running out to bring in anyone of quality. The double-edged sword of that is that anyone of quality either has the door shut on them by their present club, or a silly price tag slapped on them to keep suitors at bay. And the next thing you know, you're watching Sky Sports and live video of David Luiz, smirking his way through St. Pancras on transfer deadline day, and the feeling that, proverbially speaking, the slow ones are being played at the school disco, and you've missed out on the one you had your eye on all night long.

Behind blue eyes

It may only have been a couple of weeks ago - and it was - that we bade farewell to the last football season with the somewhat anti-climactic final of Euro 2016, but even at the indecent hour of 5am this morning it felt like the new one was already underway.

Of course, the 2016-17 season proper doesn't start for another couple of weeks (Scotland, the Football League, Community Shield, et al, with the Premier League on August 13), but the intensity of this morning's/last night's apparent friendly in California between Chelsea and Liverpool provided a more revealing insight into what we can expect from Antonio Conte, in particular, and indeed Jürgen Klopp in his first full season at Anfield.

Chelsea's pre-season PR machine has certainly been keen to show off Conte's high-tempo, intensive training techniques, with videos and press images of players working on fitness and body strength with positively medieval-looking giant elastic bands, medicine balls and other gizmos that those in the know claim to be highly innovative.

Last week's friendlies in Austria were more boot camps than anything serious, a first opportunity for the Italian to run the rule over most of his squad (some who'd been in teams progressing late into Euro 2016 were excused to finish up their holidays). But this week's American tour under the auspices of the "International Champions Cup" - a four-way tournament involving the two English clubs, Real Madrid and AC Milan - looks like being a far more competitive affair. The all-Premier League tie at the Pasadena Rose Bowl was certainly uncompromising, with Cesc Fàbregas doing little to impress Conte by earning a straight red card for a sloppy studs-up encounter with Ragnar Klavan's ankle, and Liverpool picking up five bookings.

In principle, though, no one should be too excited by the result - 1-0 to Chelsea after a tenth-minute Gary Cahill header. As we are drilled to say, "pre-season friendlies don't matter". Well, at least that's how we responded to last summer's disastrous preparation, which included a humiliating 4-2 defeat to a significantly second-string New York Red Bulls team, adding to the precipitation of José Mourinho's mood and the entire team's season-long malaise.

But there was an exciting intensity to the Liverpool game of a kind that you would normally expect from these two teams meeting on a November afternoon in West London. And if that was the image that Conte, in particular, wanted to put across, both to fans and his new bosses, then he probably succeeded. In return, we got to see a steely Chelsea, and the Conte passion we were all thrilled by during the Euros, somewhat sweatily being played out on the Rose Bowl's touchline.

Twitter/Chelsea FC

Mental strength and physical stamina were, arguably, Chelsea's undoing last season, with the former most prevalent as the Mourinho cloud grew ever-darker, and the team going on to lose 12 games and concede 53 goals. What will certainly please Conte will be his defence, which last night comprised of Cesar Azpiliqueta, Gary Cahill, 19-year-old Londoner Ola Aina, and John Terry. Yes, the Terry who only re-signed for the club as the hours ticked down to his contract expiring at the end of May. Klopp was certainly impressed by the opposition his forwards came up against: "When a team with the quality of Chelsea defends so deep then every team in the world will have a little problem," he told the Liverpool FC website.

Terry, in particular, deserves credit for his performance against Liverpool. It wasn't necessarily spectacular - the game itself wasn't - or perfect (he is, let's be honest, beyond that now), but his application and fitness over this and the other pre-season games have shown what an inspirational captain he still is. 90 minutes for a 35-year-old in searing Californian heat should not be sniffe at. Not for nothing has he been putting in the hours to demonstrate his indispensability - and captaincy - to Conte, even with the club still looking for another centre-back (Napoli's Koulibaly an expensive possibility), and Kurt Zouma soon to return from long-term injury.

While Chelsea's high-profile signing N'Golo Kante is being spared the pre-season program following France's run to the Euro 2016 final, Michy Batshuayi's introduction two-thirds into the game provided another showcase of his potential. Same goes for Juan Cuadrado, whom Conte is determined to hang on to after an impressive loan spell at Juve. All that said, the core of Conte's team against Liverpool was from the Mourinho squad, with Willian, Traore and Loftus-Cheek looking sharp in attack, along with former loanee Victor Moses, who has been impressing in pre-season, as has Nemanja Matic, after his indifferent form last term.

With Hazard back to his best, and Diego Costa's head (and fitness) being mostly in the right place, regardless of new distractions from Madrid, there is a palpable sense - to use a phrase - that the Conte regime is already drawing a line under Chelsea's dismal championship defence, one which saw them flirt dangerously - and realistically - with the relegation zone until Guus Hiddink steadied the ship.

Twitter/Chelsea FC

It's easy, simplistic even, to become giddy during pre-season, with new players, the sunshine of a summer tour, and even a bright, shiny new kit to give everything a freshness. Conte, especially, is well into his Chelsea honeymoon, one gilded by such an electric run with Italy in the Euros. But with the forthcoming challenge of Mourinho's Manchester United and Guardiola's Manchester City, along with Liverpool, Spurs and, of course, defending title winners Leicester, honeymoons do come to an end early in football. But for now, it's nice to bask in the glow of a very bright start.