After a lukewarm start to the season, Antonio Conte is finally starting to get his Chelsea side playing the way he wants them to. Photo: Reuters

A few weeks ago, one of Chelsea's younger first-team squad members had endured a bad training session, where he met none of his targets and was called into Antonio Conte's office at Cobham. The player was already angry with himself but, given the club's history with youngsters, that anger naturally turned to a bit of anxiety.

Chelsea haven't exactly been the kind of club to patiently give space or time to those who don't immediately step up, while Conte himself is notoriously volcanic.

There was no eruption this time, however, nor was there any need for the player to be anxious. Conte specifically called the youngster in to reassure him, and just talk him through how he could improve things. It is one of the very noticeable characteristics of the Italian. Despite the manic intensity seen on the sideline for the full 90 minutes of every game, he is mostly very calm away from the pitch - to the point of surprising serenity.

There is always a hardness underlying it, and he can turn quite quickly, but it is also something the Chelsea squad are enjoying most about his time in charge.

They like the fact that there is finally a sense of stability about the club again, and a unified purpose. As last week's win over Manchester United also showed, and reinforced, there is a plan - and an identity. That is key, and quite a departure for this club.

Even if that feeling is only a few weeks old, it should not be underestimated.

It is only a few months, after all, since everything at Chelsea felt so directionless and empty. The worst collapse by any title-winner since the end of the Second World War led to a deep identity crisis, with the club not really knowing where it was going after the sacking of Jose Mourinho. The last few months of 2015-16 were an aimless drift. The problem was that the Portuguese was supposed to be the key solution for the club, the man to mark a grand change in policy. In the hope of finally building a long-term legacy, everything was dependant on Mourinho. Some of the youth teams were even replicating drills the senior side did, while the entire squad was moulded according to his 4-2-3-1 ideals, and his mentality. It is why players like Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku are elsewhere.

So when it fell apart so quickly, it left everything in disarray. It seemed to make tangible this persistent perception of the most idiosyncratic of clubs, always doomed to play out the same problems and reflecting the impatience of their billionaire owner. They were always mocked for supposedly having no history, and now didn't seem to have much of a future. It also made it a rather unappealing job, since it involved a lot of work, despite so much money.

Pep Guardiola was one coveted manager who always abruptly made it clear he had no interest whatsoever in Chelsea, while as many as 10 players from last season wanted away.

One continental agent who has worked closely with the Stamford Bridge hierarchy even remarked that, because of everything that happened - as well as Mourinho's approach - the Portuguese's appointment "might have set Chelsea back three years". There didn't seem the scope to create a modern, forward-thinking side, given the kind of patience that requires.

It is to Conte's credit, then, that the club feels so on track just three months into the season. Last week's 4-0 win over their old manager was obviously huge in furthering the feeling of a new era. There was a buzz around the training ground after it, with the emphatic manner of victory making it clear this was properly becoming Conte's team.

But does the Italian feel that way yet? How long will it take until this isn't a new job, and is fully his project?

"When you arrive in a new club, you need a bit of time to understand, to breathe the new atmosphere and also to have a new relationship," Conte said on Friday. "For sure, it's not easy, because for me all of it is new now. After three months, for sure the situation has improved a lot and now, yeah, I feel well. I have a good feeling with the club, with the players, with the staff, with all the people who work in Chelsea."

The squad themselves are greatly enthused by the effects of Conte's work, and how he individually man-manages them - but not necessarily the work itself. The Chelsea manager is so intensely meticulous when it comes to his tactical demands that he throws himself into coaching sessions and literally grabs the players to show them where their correct position should be, although that can involve a lot of standing around for everyone else.

Those close to the squad say that many find that, as well as the amount of opposition information that Conte gives them, a little boring. That is likely to change when the manager feels they fully understand what he wants, and that will be when performances and results match his demands.

For the moment, though, it is performances and results that are convincing the players. They realise it's worth it. That is exactly how players like Diego Costa have been persuaded. It's easy to forget now but, on the eve of the season, there seemed to be a real personality clash between the striker and Conte. Amid so many stories that Costa wanted to leave, the Chelsea manager even publicly stated his player could "improve a lot".

The forward has certainly done that. Costa is in by far his best form since arriving in England two years ago, and is top scorer. He is one of a few players initially a little reticent about Conte's approach who have now fully bought into it. The Chelsea manager is in turn willing to invest in anyone like that. He will give them a fair chance and play them, allowing squad members like Victor Moses to seize that chance. Many squad members have already remarked how that is different from the old regime, where you were either a player the manager liked or didn't. Hard work goes a long way in a Conte squad. He himself has continued to work on his 3-4-3, making necessary tweaks, but believes it greatly suits the players.

The flip side is that there are a few it doesn't suit, with the captain being the clearest example. John Terry's situation is now brought up in every press conference, and looks set to wearily run. Conte has so far dealt with it diplomatically, despite speaking with the heavy implication last week that the captain would have to learn to show "commitment in the team - not only on the pitch, but also outside". In other words, to be responsible in a reduced role. That reminds us of the fact that this still isn't Conte's choice of squad.

The Italian didn't get any of his first-choice targets in the summer, leading to assurances being offered by Roman Abramovich after the 3-0 defeat to Arsenal, and even the relentless N'Golo Kante was second in the list of midfielders after Roma's Radja Nainggolan.

Conte actually admitted on Friday that he had not heard of Kante before the midfielder's title-winning season with Leicester City, but dismissed the increasingly repeated suggestion that Chelsea's system does not bring the best out of the French international.

"He can play box to box, but I prefer to respect the position," Conte explained. "I like when N'Golo goes to press with this [3-4-3] system. I ask a lot to press, to go forward. I think N'Golo is very good . . . he's a complete midfielder."

It remains to be seen whether the tactics and coaching work can consistently overcome the problems of an incomplete squad to challenge for the title. That would probably be stretching the personnel too thin, and Conte's 3-4-3 could well be stretched today by a good Southampton side.

Shane Long is touch-and-go to play, but Conte is well aware of the havoc he can cause from facing Ireland with Italy in Euro 2016.

"I know him very well. For me, Long is a very good player - good technique, good personality, very fast," he says. "Yes, you must pay attention to him. He's a type of player that can put you in great difficulty, if you don't pay attention to prevent the situation."

The feeling at Chelsea is that they are finally overcoming their own inherent difficulties, that Conte might at last be forging a new path. The manager resisted repeated requests to say whether this season's path could actually finish with winning the title, saying that it's still too early to tell.

"In this moment I prefer to reply that it's very difficult," he says. "It's very difficult to tell now our target, because it's early and we had a defeat against Arsenal and Liverpool. For this reason it's important - don't look at the table. It's important to understand this type of work we're doing now is to improve, and to be a strong team. And then, in the future, yes - after I think eight, 10 games, I can tell our target."

Right now, he wants to continue working without distractions. The story of Chelsea's season, though, is the story of whether a manager can work well enough to overcome the club's fundamental dysfunctions. The signs so far should promote a certain calmness about it.

Southampton v Chelsea, Sky Sports 1, 4pm

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