Chelsea stormed to Premier League glory last season and expectations have certainly been raised ahead of the new campaign, especially as the Blues have spent heavily to bring Tiemoue Bakayoko, Antonio Rudiger and Alvaro Morata to the champions.

The West London side had initially struggled to get going in the transfer window, missing out on big targets like Romelu Lukaku, but the Blues have dug their heels in and got their business complete to establish themselves in a decent position ahead of the Premier League’s return in 21 days time.

The Blues will hope that they can successfully defend their Premier League title this season, despite facing the additional task of adapting to two games a week as they return to the Champions League, a competition that Brazilian defender David Luiz is eyeing success in. If you’re a fan of betting, it may be worth checking up on the odds of Chelsea keeping hold their title this season.

Speaking recently, the centre-half signed from Paris Saint-Germain last summer spoke about the difficulties of fighting for glory on the European stage but reassured fans that he and his team-mates will be giving everything they have as they eye success.

‘It’s never easy. The Champions League is a freak competition. You need to arrive in the right moment with the best players not injured, not suspended, in the best level.’

‘So sometimes you do amazing in the group stage and then after you don’t have the best players or they’re not in the best moment physically. It’s a top-level competition, so this makes a difference. Let’s see. I hope we can arrive in the right moment at the right level.’

‘We need to build a strong squad and a strong team. We need to do better than last season if we want to win again the Premier League and do well in Europe in the Champions League.’

‘Everybody will want to beat our team and we need to improve ourselves to be better than last season.  When you play for big teams you need to have ambition. Chelsea is a big team, you want to fight for every title; it doesn’t matter the competition.’

‘After that, it depends on many things, but we’re going to fight for the Premier League title, the cups and for the Champions League.’

Chelsea tackle Arsenal tomorrow in a pre-season friendly in Beijing, before clashing with Bayern Munich and Inter Milan in Singapore. They then return to the UK for the Community Shield clash with Arsenal at Wembley, before commencing their Premier League title defence the following week at Stamford Bridge against Burnley.