Chelsea have announced that we will be hosting a “weekender” ahead of the start of the new Premier League season, with Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan coming to town for a couple friendlies the second weekend of August.
Officially called the “VisitMalta Cup” — sponsored by some people who really want you to visit Malta — the event will see us play Leverkusen on Friday, August 8 (7pm kick-off) and AC Milan on Sunday, August 10 (3pm kick-off). Both games will be at Stamford Bridge. The new Premier League season kicks off the following weekend (August 16).
Given our summer commitments and general lack of an actual offseason, it’s good to see that we will be at least ending our (actual) preseason close to home. Depending on how far we go in the Club World Cup, the players may not get much time off at all. Enzo Maresca is hoping to give everyone at least 3-4 weeks, but that may not be too feasible if we’re still playing in mid-July. I guess we just forgo most of the usual preseason? The CWC final is on July 13.
