Chelsea head to rivals West Ham United on August 22 aiming for their first win of the 2025/26 Premier League season.
Enzo Maresca’s FIFA Club World Cup champions kicked off the new campaign with a 0-0 home draw against Crystal Palace as West Ham lost 3-0 on the road at Sunderland.
The Italian coach handed Blues Premier League starting debuts to Joao Pedro and Jamie Gittens with Liam Delap, Andrey Santos and Estevao Willian brought off the bench late on.
A second half xG of 1.06 shows how Chelsea looked to push on in the closing stages but they were unable to breakthrough a resolute Palace backline.
Maresca admitted in his post-match press conference that some of his new faces are not yet up to speed in the Premier League.
Changes are expected at the London Stadium and The Sporting News takes a look at three key issues ahead of kickoff.
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Defensive doubts after Fofana row
Maresca has made clear his desire to bring in another centre-back following an ACL injury to Levi Colwill.
The England international will be out of action until 2026 and Benoit Badiashile remains sidelined. Tosin Adarabioyo missed the Palace game through injury and Wesley Fofana remained on the bench.
The latter was rumoured to be removed from the starting XI at the last minute by Maresca and that triggered a furious reaction from the former Leicester City defender.
Fofana deleted all links to Chelsea from his social media accounts and fans are concerned he could push for an exit before the September 1 deadline.
Trevoh Chalobah and Josh Acheampong look set to continue as a partnership against West Ham after dealing confidently with the threat of Jean-Philippe Mateta & Co.
Maresca’s Delap dilemmaÂ
Joao Pedro got the starting nod vs. Palace before being replaced by Delap on 73 minutes.
Despite his superb performance in the Club World Cup final against PSG, Joao Pedro had a limited impact on the Eagles defence, with an xG of 0.28 and no shots on target.
Delap offers a different type of threat at the tip of Chelsea’s attack and he tested Dean Henderson in the closing stages – which Joao Pedro did not manage all game.
Up against a physical West Ham back three, Delap could rotate in, to give Maresca a clearer idea of which striker suits certain opposition.
Release the Estevao wow factor
The noise levels went up a notch as Maresca introduced 18-year-old Estevao for Gittens on the 55-minute mark.
Blues fans are arguably more excited by their new Brazilian teenager than any of their new faces and he showed a few flashes of Samba flair up against Tyrick Mitchell and Marc Guehi.
A big chance missed 66 minutes knocked his confidence a little and the hunch is that Maresca will keep him on the bench for a little longer.
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