Chelsea ‘likely’ to face Arsenal in Florida Cup preseason match — reports

With the (western) world emerging and reopening from a two-year pandemic, we probably can expect normal service to resume in terms of preseason tours and marketing exercises for football clubs as well. Case in point, Arsenal set to confirm a trip to the USA this summer, after a similar trip was canceled last season.

The Gunners will be partaking in whatever a Florida Cup is, and one of their opponents are “likely” to be Chelsea, according to a couple reports today. Local side Orlando City and possibly Everton would complete the quarter of teams in this preseason tournament.

If Chelsea do end up participating in this thing, we would likely add another date or two to make the trip worthwhile — especially as our new owners are likely to be American as well. Personally I’d be hoping for a game on the West Coast as well, though a trip to the Florida sunshine isn’t the worst thing either.

Chelsea’s last proper preseason tour was in 2019, with a week spent in Japan, followed by training camp in Austria. Our last USA Tour was in 2016, which included games in Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, and Minneapolis (not counting that fateful charity match against the New England Revolution in May 2019).

Dávid Pásztor