Antonio Conte has insisted that Chelsea's start to the season has not been as bad as it has been made out to be, especially when taking mounting injury problems into account.

The Blues have started their Premier League title defence with five wins from their first nine games, leaving them fourth in the table and nine points adrift of Manchester City at the top.

A 3-3 draw at home to Roma last time out in the Champions League does not appear to be too damaging, meanwhile, as Chelsea remain well on course for a place in the last 16 of the competition.

Ahead of his side's trip to Bournemouth on Saturday, and with progression to the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup secured with victory over Everton in midweek, Conte took a defensive approach when asked to assess the opening two-and-a-half months of 2017-18.

"In this moment we have to try to overcome this spirit because don't forget from the start of the season we had lot of problems," he told reporters.

"We had [Eden] Hazard's problem to start the season and then we have Pedro's problem and then we continue with Danny [Drinkwater] in first week of training with us. And then with N'Golo [Kante] and also with [Victor] Moses.

"Our start this season wasn't lucky for many reasons but I think we are doing well and we have the points that we deserve in the league and we are doing well in the Champions League.

"We also took the next step in Carabao Cup - last season we were eliminated by West Ham in second round. But we have to continue to work".

Chelsea follow up this weekend's Bournemouth clash with games against Roma and Manchester United before the two-week international break.