Antonio Conte insists Chelsea working hard in the transfer market as 31 August deadline looms

Antonio Conte claims that Chelsea are "trying their best" to further strengthen their title-winning group before the 31 August transfer deadline, but praised the attitude of his current crop after they bounced back from a disastrous opening day defeat to Burnley by successfully prolonging Tottenham Hotspur's Wembley hoodoo.

The defending champions have made four new additions so far this summer, with Willy Caballero, Antonio Rudiger, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Alvaro Morata all arriving at Stamford Bridge.

However, a lack of further activity combined with injuries/suspensions and a willingness to sell off and loan out several fringe players has left Chelsea's squad looking patchy in places.

Indeed, a chronic shortage of midfielders led to Bakayoko - a £40m ($51.5m) July signing from AS Monaco - starting and featuring for the entirety of Sunday's (20 August) 2-1 victory secured courtesy of a dramatic brace from wing-back Marcos Alonso, despite the fact that he remains some way short of full match fitness following surgery on a minor knee injury.

A frustrated Conte has previously conceded that it will be hard for Chelsea to retain their title without further recruitment and insisted that the club's hierarchy are fully aware of his priorities on that front.

Addressing the situation again following a narrow late victory over their London rivals, a more contented Conte was quoted as saying by football.london: "The club is trying its best in the transfer market to improve our squad but I must be happy. We only have to think on the pitch and not to give answers to people.

"This moment is not easy for us but I am very happy to have this group of players because they showed me great commitment, desire and will to improve after a great season. We only need to focus on the pitch, outside does not matter for us."

Chelsea have inevitably been linked with countless defenders and midfielders of late as they prepare for a busy final 10 days of the window, with Danny Drinkwater, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ross Barkley, Toby Alderweireld, Grzegorz Krychowiak, Virgil van Dijk, Cedric Soares, Alex Sandro and Antonio Candreva all said to be firmly on Conte's radar.

Speaking before the satisfying defeat of Spurs, the flamboyant Italian expressed admiration for the foundations that Mauricio Pochettino had put in place over the last three seasons and expressed the need for Chelsea to build a similar platform.

"We need time to work, to improve," he said. "I thought this season would be difficult, we lost a lot of strong players that built a strong base. John Terry, John Obi Mikel, Branislav Ivanovic - and now we need to find the right way to build. We must have patience to build for the future."