In his interview with the Chelsea official website this morning, looking back at the USA tour, Levi Colwill pointed out that this Sunday’s friendly against Inter Milan would be one that his team have to treat “like it’s the first game of the season.”
It’s all set up for it – we will be at home, with one week to go until the actual first game of the season. We will have all of our players back (even if some won’t be fit to pick up many/any minutes) and there’s a real sense after some bad results on tour that a good showing and hopefully a win is needed to get us into gear.
Manager Enzo Maresca has had a hectic time on tour managing the minutes of his players and integrating constant new faces. But this game has to be all about just picking a team ready for Man City a week later. At the start, at the very least, we expect him to reveal something of his plans for his first team.
It’s a huge chance for Nicolas Jackson, for example, to grab a few match minutes before the Premier League starts.
Maresca has to reveal his hand with final friendly selection
We’ve already got a good idea of it from his previous lineups, but this will be our most concrete picture yet. We will likely find out who his first choice goalkeeper is for one, as well as the answer to the conundrum of how you squeeze all these midfielders in at once.
As Colwill said, “[Inter] are a great team… they have a lot to offer, and they will challenge us. So to get a win would hopefully set us on a good path for the rest of the season.”
Then again, another defeat would… well, let’s not worry about that.