Ivanovic plays down Chelsea expectations

Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic insists it is “dangerous” to look too far ahead as his side target improvement in the Premier League.

Now under Antonio Conte, Chelsea are looking for a much better campaign after a disappointing 10th-place league finish last season.

The Italian has added the likes of big-money signings N’Golo Kante and Michy Batshuayi to his squad in the off-season.

But while Ivanovic expects better from the club, he warned against setting unrealistic goals.

“With the new signings and the new system we will improve a lot. It will make our players much better,” he said.

“If all our squad is on top of our performances we can go very high this year, but it is dangerous to say anything about the future because we know how difficult this league is.

“We can promise to ourselves to give everything in every game with this passion and style. We can improve and we will improve, but we have to go step by step.”

Leicester City were shock title winners last season, finishing 10 points clear at the top after a fairy-tale campaign.

But Ivanovic believes this season could be even trickier as clubs look to follow in the footsteps of Claudio Ranieri’s team.

“This could definitely be the toughest Premier League ever. Every team is strengthening and every team, after last season when Leicester won, want to be better and be the new surprise,” the Serbian said.

“Of course, the big teams want to be good again. So it’s going to be very exciting.

“We just have to go step by step and game by game and every game will be a different story for us.”