Chelsea will have no time to ease their way into the new Premier League campaign as they face a trip to Man Utd on the opening weekend of the season.
As noted by the Metro, question marks remain over Maurizio Sarri’s future at Stamford Bridge while Eden Hazard’s move to Real Madrid has been officially confirmed.
Coupled with their transfer ban this summer, the Blues seemingly have plenty of other problems to deal with first to ensure that they are ready for the new season.
Nevertheless, in the likes of Tiemoue Bakayoko and Tammy Abraham, they’ll have players coming back from impressive loan spells elsewhere, and so they’ll hope that they’ll enough quality and depth to continue to compete for a top four finish and beyond.
They’ll hope to start on a positive note with a result against a direct rival for a top four spot in United, as they travel to Old Trafford on August 11 to face Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men.
That’s followed by clashes with Premier League new boys Norwich City and Sheffield United in the next three games, and so those matches won’t be easy either as they will be out to prove a point and secure big scalp on their return to the top flight.
Chelsea do have a particularly difficult festive period by the looks of it too, as they face Tottenham and Arsenal away either side of Christmas Day, and so they’ll hope to build momentum over that run of fixtures rather than see their season falter.
They end the season with a trip to Liverpool followed by the final game of the campaign at home against Wolves, and they’ll certainly be hoping that they’re in the mix for their objectives at that point as it remains to be seen if Sarri will still be in charge to try to build on his success in his first year in charge at Chelsea or if a successor will pick up that task instead.
Our 2019/20 @PremierLeague fixtures! ? pic.twitter.com/Jdo73nAa73
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) June 13, 2019