An unexpectedly fresh and drizzly morning greeted the Chelsea squad, but spirits were high as the players took to the grass for the first time at our training base on the outskirts of the City of Brotherly Love.

Those new to the group – Mike Penders, Mamadou Sarr, Dario Essugo, and Liam Delap – were all involved in the session, which saw our preparations for Monday evening's clash against Los Angeles FC step up.

There was also the welcome sight of Aaron Anselmino, Moises Caicedo, Andrey Santos and Enzo Fernandez with the group.

Having represented their respective international sides in South America, the quartet joined up with the rest of the squad at the team hotel in Philadelphia yesterday evening.

Of course, Santos has experience of working Stateside with Chelsea; the Brazilian spent part of last summer's pre-season tour with the Blues before joining Strasbourg on loan.

For Maresca, there was very little downtime between the end of our regular season and the beginning of the Club World Cup.

Qualification to next season's Champions League and lifting the Conference League trophy was enjoyed, but then his focus shifted to this summer's tournament.

In part one of our exclusive interview with the Blues head coach, he said: ‘We had a few days off after the Conference League final,’ he begins. ‘But then we returned and we started to prepare for this competition. It was so quick [the turnaround] and we needed to be ready.

'The good thing is that we finished the Premier League and the Conference League in the way we all wanted, so now we have arrived with a good feeling and are fully focused on this competition.’

Chelsea's opening game against LAFC kicks off at 8pm UK time on Monday. You can watch that and every other game at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 live for free by signing up with DAZN here.