Chelsea will hope to get their first win of their USA pre-season tour against Club America later this week.
Of course, results don’t matter in pre-season, but failing to beat Wrexham and being thrashed 4-1 by Celtic isn’t a great start to the Enzo Maresca era.
The Blues’ preparations have been disrupted by the Enzo Fernandez race scandal.
The Argentine midfielder videoed himself and his teammates singing a racist song after winning the Copa America, which angered many in the Blues dressing-room.
However, the player has now met up with the rest of the first team and has apologised for his actions with the case closed.
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Chelsea will now hope they can focus on the upcoming Premier League campaign.
Chelsea vs Club America: Date and how to follow
This pre-season friendly is set to take place on Wednesday, July 31.
Kick-off at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta is set for 7:30pm, meaning it starts at 12:30am UK time on Thursday morning.
The match will be streamed on the Chelsea website and app, and can be purchased for £4.99. More details here.
Chelsea vs Club America: Team news
As mentioned, Fernandez has now joined up with the rest of his teammates.
He will no doubt get some minutes here, while Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall has overcome a knock, so should be involved in some way.
Maresca will also look to give more game time to Christopher Nkunku and Reece James after injury-hit campaigns.
Moises Caicedo has also joined up with his teammates, so Maresca might partner him with Fernandez in midfield.
The full Chelsea squad for their US tour can be found here.
Chelsea vs Club America: What has been said?
Despite it being a pre-season friendly, Maresca wasn’t happy with what he saw against Celtic.
He said: “Off the ball we need to improve things.
“You can see sometimes we confuse when we need to play short and when we need to play a little bit longer but that is part of the process.
“We maintained a high line but when the ball is not under pressure, you need to drop … we are still confusing some things on the ball and off the ball. It is normal in this moment when we are trying to do something new.
“For us, we need to analyse the game in general. I think on the ball, the team were 10 times better than in the game against Wrexham and that is important because we can see the amount of chances we created first half and second half.
“The result is always important but in this moment we need to judge and analyse different things. On the ball we created chances, off the ball we probably conceded too much and that is something we need to improve.”
News Summary:
- Chelsea vs Club America LIVE: UK kick-off time, team news and how to follow as Blues seek first win on tour and Fernandez returns
- Check all news and articles from the latest Football updates.