LIFE is full of surprises – just ask Toronto Wolfpack, who clearly did not see that weekend defeat by York City Knights coming – but if Chelsea owner Roman Abramovic decides to sack his manager, that won’t be one of them.

At least that is the view of the man himself, Antonio Conte, who led the Blues to the Premier League title last season.

Winning the league is no guarantee of long-term employment in the most money-mad competition in world football.

Jose Mourinho took Chelsea from champions to 10th and lost his job and, even more bizarrely, Leicester City axed Claudio Ranieri only months after working a sporting miracle.

After a pre-season build-up that has seen injuries to key players, missed chances in the transfer market and a whole bus-load of players leaving, Conte fears that his name could be added to the list.

In other words, Chelsea are expected to win the title again. And again in 2019 after that.

The same could be said of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City who already lead the way in one race – who can spend the most money.

Jose Mourinho will be given another year to convince the doubters that he is the right man for Manchester United and Jurgen Klopp will get the same consideration at Liverpool.

Arsene Wenger will continue to use his persuasive powers to suggest that all is well at the Emirates and Mauricio Pochettino will be hard pressed to improve on last season.

Home games that are really away games while their new ground is being built won’t help them end a 57-year wait for a league title

So the Premier League may not be the place to look for life’s surprises – except perhaps if you are a Huddersfield Town supporter and they survive for more than a season – and you can guarantee that at least one of the 20 managers setting out in 10 days’ time won’t be there when it’s all wrapped up.

Nobody knows that better than Antonio Conte. Yes, football is back without ever being away.

“Let them have both barrels” took on a new meaning at the Oval when Toby Roland-Jones marked his debut with five wickets. But one thing has always puzzled me about cricket fans. They pack the ground for the first four days of a Test match and then, on the fifth day when there is going to be a result the ground is two-thirds empty.

BACK in the days when rugby league was a major winter attraction, the game could lure many of Australia’s finest players to spend a season here.

Mal Meninga, Peter Sterling, Gene Miles and Wally Lewis were among the top-of-the-range signings who came over to boost the English game. They were all a big success, but if you twisted my arm to name one import who left a bigger impression than the most it would be Brett Kenny.

A stand-off who played as though he did not have a care in the world, the man from Parramatta was not built for the crash, bang, wallop of the modern game but that would not have worried him – he would have found a way to change it.

Wembley 1985 – Wigan v Hull as it happens – is still considered by many who saw it to be the greatest Challenge Cup Final of them all and Kenny was the star of that show, lifting the Lance Todd Trophy.

There was an eight-minute film of some of his best moments during his 14-year stint with Parramatta Eels on one of the forums. It’s worth searching out.

Now 56, Kenny is in Sydney undergoing treatment for cancer and goodwill messages have been pouring in.

Those rugby league supporters who are a bit long in the tooth and regularly yearn for the good old days like to make comparisons with the modern day version by offering the view that “they don’t make them like that any more.”

In the case of Brett Kenny they are probably right.

IF darts is not your thing, you might like to skip over the next few lines.

Blackpool’s Winter Gardens was packed solid for the farewell appearance of a player who had been written off more times than he could count.

But yet again Phil Taylor – bad back, bad knees and feeling all of his 57 years – saw off all pretenders by beating Peter (Snakebite) Wright to lift the World Matchplay Championship for the 16th time.

Taylor, who won his first world title (BDO version) in 1990, when he beat hid mentor Eric Bristow 6-1, has decided to hang up his arrows, or whatever it is you do with darts.

A winner of 16 World Championships and now 16 World Matchplay titles, rounded it all off in Blackpool by finishing on double-16.

Showmanship or bravado, it was a heck of a way to sign off. Those of you still with me will agree, the game is going to miss The Power.