Chelsea open its 2015/16 preseason campaign early Thursday morning (1:00 a.m. BST) in its opening fixture of the International Champions Cup. Its opening match will take place at Red Bull Arena against the hosts – New York Red Bulls.
Chelsea last played in the U.S. in 2013 as part of its preseason tour in the International Champions Cup – where it fell, 3-1, to Real Madrid in the final.
Chelsea is coming in to this game pretty fresh, having no friendlies in nearly a month, and Red Bulls will be limited in squad depth of its typical first team players. NYRB played a U.S. Open Cup fixture last night, meaning many of its regular starters will be missing from the lineup in this preseason fixture.
Team News
Mourinho will have the full squad at his disposal, so expect a balance of first team players and youth players – especially considering Chelsea will travel south to play PSG on Saturday night. It’s tough to even guess at this point, but I would say our lineup would look something like: Courtois; Aina, Terry, Zouma, Azpilicueta; Matic, Loftus-Cheek; Traore, Fabregas, Hazard; Costa. But hey, it’s preseason, so who knows.
Prediction
Mourinho said Tuesday evening “right now I only have one objective: to win tomorrow.” Chelsea should have no problem doing just that. With the difference in skill to begin with, coupled with the fact that Red Bulls will be very limited in its squad selection, I’ll guess a 3-0 victory is in store for the Blues.
