Chelsea team news
There were some familiar faces reporting back at Cobham this week, with Euro 2020 winners Jorginho and Emerson joining England trio Mason Mount, Reece James and Ben Chilwellin returning to pre-season training.
Thiago Silva, who reached the Copa America final with Brazil, and Ethan Ampadu were the two other Chelsea players returning to our Surrey training base as Tuchel’s numbers got back to full strength.
Whether those seven players will be considered for match action against Spurs remains to be seen, but it’s expected that the likes of Timo Werner, Mateo Kovacic and Toni Rudiger will be handed more pre-season minutes.
Trevoh Chalobah, who started Sunday’s win over the Gunners, will hope for another chance to impress, while the likes of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Christian Pulisic will all surely feature at some stage.
The opposition
Nuno Espirito Santo is in the early days of his stewardship of Tottenham, after being appointed head coach earlier this summer.
The former Wolves boss has already made a couple of astute additions to his squad this pre-season, with the highly-rated Byran Gil arriving from Sevilla – with Erik Lamela going the other way as part of the transfer – and goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollina arriving on loan from Atalanta.
It feels a little weird playing your two biggest rivals in the preseason, but with Covid limiting travel, it probably makes a lot of sense to stay as close to home as possible. As such, Tottenham Hotspur will engage in a pair of friendlies against Chelsea and Arsenal ahead of the quickly approaching season
Both matches are part of The Mind Series, with funds set to support the mental health charity, Mind. Both matches can be streamed on Spurs’ website via pay per view. The intensity will be much lower than it typically is for a London Derby, but Wednesday’s trip to Stamford Bridge is the penultimate tune-up before the matches start counting for real.
Lineups
To be added once announced.
How to Watch
Date: Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Time: 2:45 p.m. ET, 7:45 p.m. UK
Location: Stamford Bridge, London, England
TV/Streaming: tottenhamhotspur.com