Champions League schedule set: Chelsea to play Sevilla first!

The day after Chelsea were drawn to a seemingly favorable Group E, the fixtures for the 2020-21 UEFA Champions League group stage have been scheduled and released:

Southampton (H) | Sevilla (H) (Oct 20) | Man Utd (A)
Man Utd (A) | Krasnodar (A) (Oct 28) | Burnley (A)
Burnley (A) | Rennes (H) (Nov 4) | Sheffield Utd (H)
Newcastle (A) | Rennes (A) (Nov 24) | Spurs (H)
Spurs (H) | Sevilla (A) (Dec 2) | Leeds (H)
Leeds (H) | Krasnodar (H) (Dec 8) | Everton (A)

Chelsea’s campaign will start on October 20th against Sevilla at home. With only 18 days to go until the top seed in the group, the defending Europa League champions arrive at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea will need to find form quickly — especially with players just returning to fitness and a two-week international break to interrupt everything again in the meantime.

The second match will be the worst of the bunch in terms of logistics. Chelsea will have to travel over 4,000 miles to Krasnodar, just four days after a tough match away against Manchester United.

Later on, the Édouard Mendy Derby will see its home and away leg completed in the month of November. Hopefully, by then Chelsea will be sitting pretty in the group so that we don’t have to worry about the away test at Sevilla (just after a home match against Spurs) or the home game against Krasnodar to finish out the group stage campaign.