Chelsea play football again this week, and even with everything that has gone on at the club recently and in the past few years, I cannot help but be very excited to see the lads back in action.
Chelsea now have five pre-season friendlies scheduled in with a chance for another potential in-house match as well.
Enzo Maresca and his team head off to America today for a pre-season tour, and the hard work really begins now.
The Blues face Wrexham at 3.30am UK time on Thursday morning this week as the first game of the new campaign.
Then on Saturday 27th July, Chelsea play Celtic at 9pm.
Thursday the 1st August at 12.30am we face Club America.
Saturday the 3rd of August we play Manchester City at 10.30pm.
Wednesday the 7th August we play Real Madrid at midnight.
Then finally on Sunday August the 11th at 3pm, it will be Maresca’s first game at Stamford Bridge which will hopefully have a sense of excitement and anticipation about it.
We have some very tough games in this pre-season schedule, so it’s going to be a hard start. Then our first game of the Premier League season comes on August the 18th against Manchester City again!
I never like to get too excited or upset about pre-season games and results. It doesn’t often mean much. Mauricio Pochettino’s Chelsea looked very good in pre-season a year ago but when it came down to business they looked completely different. It can also go the other way. So I keep my expectations low regardless.
Also playing against top sides like Real Madrid and City we can never expect too much, especially when we have another new manager yet again and more new players to integrate, with a new style of play to learn. We will genuinely have to have a bit of patience this season before we can really see where we are at.
I’m not confident for the season ahead yet, I need to see what transfer business we do before the window is over before I can make any judgements. But I am cautiously optimistic about Maresca and what he is trying to do with the way he wants to play, and I’ve heard some good things from sources close to the players already. I do need to see it all played out and in full flow yet though to really judge.
Obviously I’m very concerned about the who Enzo Fernandez incident and what effect that ends up having, and as I said, the remaining transfer business we do. I genuinely believe the remaining business could make or break our season, that’s how important it is.
We’re getting there, but we certainly aren’t there yet in my opinion.
The pre-season games are sporadic and at random times due to different time zones in America of course. It makes it really annoying to try and watch and cover games for us fans in the UK, but then I can’t complain because this is just the norm for many of you overseas fans who have to do this every week! So massive respect for that!
I do believe we will see signs of Maresca’s football quite early doors, even from the first game later this week. I think we will start to see some differences.
I’m buzzing for the game and to see how he sets his team up, because I also feel that although the personnel will change, the first formation and setup he uses later this week will be the one he goes into the season with.
Although it’s not the be all and end all in terms of results, I do hope to see some encouraging performances in these games individually and as a team. It could really help set up the rest of the season for us.
But ultimately there is never any need to panic or get too excited during pre-season, especially under the circumstances of another new manager.
Either way, bring on Ryan Reynolds this Thursday! Let’s go!!