Happy days at Chelsea as Conte and Abramovich working on 'important target for January'

Five weeks ago, the stories were of Abramovich holding days-long meetings with Conte, as Chelsea had fallen to rather unimpressive back-to-back defeats to Liverpool and Arsenal.  While both parties insisted that the meetings were productive and positive in nature — Abramovich supposedly agreed to "back Conte in the transfer market" and fund another squad overhaul — it still made for ominous headlines and all the usual jokes about the revolving managerial door at Chelsea.

Of course, the trouble with any solution posed through transfers is that it wouldn't arrive until at least January if not much later.  Chelsea needed an immediate solution, one which Conte's 3-4-3 has supplied with great aplomb.  So now the stories have become a lot more positive (and a lot more scarce as well; conflict sells, after all).  The one thing that hasn't changed is the idea of January reinforcements.

Conte is really happy. Also with Abramovich.

Roman has always supported Conte. They're working on some important target for January #CFC

— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) November 6, 2016

Some important target!  Sounds important!

I'm sure we'll hear of plenty of speculation in the weeks ahead, with all the usual names (Griezmann, Bonucci, etc.) and a few more odds ones (Steven N'Zonzi?) thrown in there for fun as well.  Right now, Chelsea look like a well-oiled and unbeatable machine, but that won't last forever and a few positions certainly could use a bit of depth (left back and center back, for example), so maybe that's where we'll begin our search in the transfer market.