Regardless of key gamers similar to Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson lacking from their Convention League squad, Chelsea have comfortably gained their first 4 video games within the competitors, scoring an enormous 18 objectives in these 4 matches.
They’re additionally flying excessive within the Premier League, simply 4 factors off the leaders Liverpool, giving supervisor Enzo Maresca a greater begin than many would have imagined.
His aspect face Astana, of Kazakhstan, of their subsequent Convention League recreation at 3:30pm this Thursday – however why the unusual kick-off time?
Why are Chelsea kicking off at 3:30pm?
The Convention League was all the time going to provide Chelsea the chance to play towards much less conventional European sides. Up to now, they’ve crushed groups from Switzerland, Belgium, Greece and Armenia. Up subsequent is an away journey to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.
Chelsea will truly be taking part in in Almaty, round 1,200 km away from Astana, because of renovations on Astana’s present stadium. This implies the native time is 5 hours forward of England, so the match will probably be kicking off at 8:30pm native time, therefore the weird 3:30pm kick-off time for these in England.
Chelsea face an eight-hour flight to town of Almaty, one of many longest away journeys doable for a European away day.
As soon as the gamers have travelled over 6,000 kilometres they are going to then be met by harsh winter situations which have additionally affected the kick-off time.
Temperatures are set to be as little as -15 levels. This implies the time of the match couldn’t be made any later, to a extra conventional European kick-off time in London, as temperatures would proceed to drop in a single day.
Regardless of lacking star man Cole Palmer, who ranked at no.3 in FourFourTwo’s listing of the most effective attacking midfielders on this planet proper now, Chelsea’s unimaginable squad depth permits them to start out gamers similar to Joao Felix, Christopher Nkunku and Enzo Fernandez within the Convention League.
While the freezing situations could also be a hurdle for the Chelsea aspect, Astana sit twenty third within the Convention League desk, having gained only one recreation, suggesting something however a win for Maresca’s aspect could be a poor show.
