Chelsea are playing their next pre-season game later this evening, or very early tomorrow morning depending on what time zone you are in.
If you’re in the UK, the game kicks off as soon as Sunday morning begins at midnight later on, and it might be worth staying up for this one!
Chelsea are playing a bit of a grudge match against Brighton later on and it has a bit of a toxic feel around the fixture due to Chelsea’s ongoing attempts to sign Moises Caicedo from Brighton, having already took Marc Cucurella and Graham Potter last season, as well as other staff members.
It will be far from a friendly match that’s for sure, at least for the fans anyway. The players will probably be much calmer, and Mauricio Pochettino has dropped a big hint on what line-up he will be going for in words on the Chelsea website.
Pochettino said: “We are going to continue to provide the young players with the possibility to play on Saturday and in the next few games.
“For all the players here, the objective is to arrive in the best condition against Liverpool. You can use excuses a week before the start of the Premier League. We need to arrive in the right condition and for that we need to use the games against Brighton, Newcastle, Fulham and Dortmund.
“We need to manage the players. Reece (James) arrived yesterday in the UK and it would be easy for me to say go and play, but there is a risk.
“Maybe nothing would happen and it would be ok. But if something happened, maybe we have to wait one or two months. So the objective is to provide the best tools for the individuals and set the principles.”
So as you can see, expect another young line-up from Pochettino tonight, very similar to the one that played against Wrexham. And it doesn’t sound like too many senior players will be involved yet.
