Chelsea are just hours away from getting their Club World Cup campaign underway, with an opening group game against LAFC.
Enzo Maresca will have likely been hoping for more new signings in his first team squad before they jetted off to the United States, however missed out on the additions of Jamie Gittens and Mike Maignan.
However, he will have the services of Liam Delap to call on. The Chelsea Chronicle is predicting Delap will start against the MLS side and make his debut for the club.
The Blues will also be facing Flamengo and ES Tunis in the group stages, and will be looking to advance with little issue to line up against the big European sides in the latter stages.
Chelsea’s chances of winning the Club World Cup
The Opta Supercomputer believes this is likely to happen, with BBC Sport reporting that Chelsea have been given a 76.7% chance of finishing first in the group.
The same resource does not make the Blues favourites for the whole competition though, giving them just an 8.4% chance of lifting the trophy on July 13. This makes them the sixth favourites of the 32 teams to enter.
The Chelsea squad which qualified for the Champions League last season will be on show, with a sprinkling of new players for Maresca to get a look at. Andrey Santos will be present, as well as Dario Essugo and Mamadou Sarr.
Maresca has chance to make history at Club World Cup
Chelsea have already won the Club World Cup in their history, while they also boast the unwanted record of being the only European club not to win it since 2007.
However, the new format is in its first variant this summer, and the winners will be able to show off the achievement with a badge on their shirt for the next four seasons.
Maresca will be looking to build on his very positive first campaign at the club by managing the first winners of the new competition, beating the likes of Manchester City and PSG in the process.
