Chelsea have been drawn with last season’s semi-finalists Ajax, Valencia and Lille in their Champions League group, UEFA have announced.

Ajax have lost a number of their key players since last season, including Matthijs de Ligt to Juventus and Frenkie de Jong to Barcelona. Considering the Blues could have got the likes of Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid or Borussia Dortmund in pot 2, manager Frank Lampard will be happy to have drawn with the Dutch club.

Valencia were in Manchester United’s group last year before moving down into the Europa League. They met Arsenal in the semi-finals but they lost out to the Gunners 7-3 on aggregate.

Lille, meanwhile, finished second in Ligue One last campaign, but they only narrowly avoided relegation from the top flight in the 2017/18 season, finishing 17th, just five points above the drop zone.

All in all, the Blues will be pretty happy with the draw. They have avoided a number of strong teams in pot two, three and four, and should be confident of making it into the knockout rounds.