Chelsea vs Swansea City
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Kick off: 5:30pm
Chelsea begin the defence of their Premier League title as Swansea City come to town hoping to build on what was also a hugely encouraging 2014-15 for them.
Jose Mourinho’s side led the way in the table from August 30 en route to their fourth league crown.
And the Blues will be keen to pick up where they left off from last term.
Can Chelsea be stopped? Not according to bookmakers, many of whom have installed Mourinho’s men as short-priced favourites to retain their title come May 2016. Few would back against them doing just that.
Such was the emphatic manner of their glory last term, Mourinho has felt less compelled to embark on the level of spending commonly associated with the West Londoners in summers gone past.
This time around, Radamel Falcao – who was signed on a season-long loan from AS Monaco – is the only major arrival at Stamford Bridge, with goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, Danilo Pantic and Brazilian starlet Nathan also joining for a combined £13.5m.
With Eden Hazard winning PFA Player of the Year last term, and Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa also enjoying exceptional debut seasons at Chelsea, the consensus seems to be that there is little need to overly a strengthen a squad that led the title race for a record 267 days in the 2014-15 campaign – August 30 until May 24.
However, Mourinho’s side endured a lukewarm pre-season campaign, with Sunday’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield giving rise to suggestions that the Blues will face a far tougher test of their mettle than last time around.
Chelsea won this fixture 4-2 last season but it was a Swansea performance that may remind Mourinho’s men of the threat posed by their Welsh counterparts. The visit of Swansea will not and should not be underestimated by the hosts.
Failing to win this time around would not prompt the bookies to identify a new favourite, but dropped points may indicate that the season comes too soon for a side who, based on their pre-season outings, don’t look ready for their defence to get underway.
Having claimed that the 2015-16 campaign will be the “hardest season the Premier League has seen”, Swansea boss Garry Monk is clearly under no illusions of how tricky it will be to replicate his heroics of last season.
This time last year, 36-year-old Monk – the second youngest manager in the division behind Norwich City’s Alex Neil, 34 – was preparing for his first full year in charge and many pre-season predictions from the media made for grim reading. How wrong they were.
Not only did City steer well clear of the relegation scrap envisioned for them, Monk led his troops to an eighth-placed finish in what proved the club’s best ever top-flight season. It was an achievement made all the more remarkable by the fact that they lost primary goalscorer Wilfried Bony to Manchester City in January.
They also managed a league double over Manchester United and Arsenal and the young manager may remind his squad of those scalps as they prepare to visit the champions this weekend.
Visiting Stamford Bridge on Gameweek 1 is arguably the toughest possible start for City, but the fear factor may be reduced given the fact they excelled in defying the odds last term.
Last season, they kicked off their campaign with a 2-1 win at Old Trafford in what remained as one of the major surprises up until the 2014-15 edition finished. It arguably set the tone for their campaign, and Monk may be optimistic over a similar scalp again.
He has kept his squad intact throughout the summer months, and recruited the likes of Eder and Andre Ayew from Braga and Marseille respectively. Despite their success of last season, Monk is adamant that the 40-point barrier remains the target. Secretly, though, he may be hoping that he can top what he managed last time around.
Chelsea possible starting lineup: Courtois; Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta; Matic, Fabregas; Hazard, Oscar, Willlian; Remy.
Swansea possible starting lineup: Fabianski; Naughton, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor; Cork, Ki; Routledge, Sigurdsson, Dyer; Gomis.
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