In just five days, Chelsea will begin the 2020-21 Premier League season, away to Brighton & Hove Albion, which is obviously exciting, especially after the fantastic transfer window, but also a bit scary considering that today was the first training session where the vast majority of the squad got to be present, including all the new arrivals and most of those who had to quarantine after their summer holidays.
Not much time to get everyone on the same page before all the action starts, which isn’t ideal. But most top teams in the Premier League are dealing with similar issues, so we mustn’t allow this to be an excuse if we truly want to start closing to the gap and (start) challenging for the title. Those aims might take more than one summer to achieve, but the journey start (continues?) here and now.
In any case, here are some pictures from Wednesday’s training, featuring Christian Pulisic (seemingly back from injury), Kai Havertz (with the group for the first time!), Jorginho & Mason Mount (back from quarantine and international duty), Werner (so no quarantine required even though he went to Switzerland with the Germany team), and most of the rest. Giroud, Kanté, and Kovačić appear to not be back yet from their game the day before, while Tammy Abraham was the only conspicuous absentee, but he was on the bench for England alongside Mount on Tuesday, so he’s probably just fine.