Chelsea begin their Conference League stage campaign at home as the Belgian side visit Stamford Bridge.
Enzo Maresca endured a difficult start to his tenure in west London, but the Italian side have found their rhythm in recent outings and head into Thursday’s game having won all four of their previous games the competitions
Last time out, the Blues dismantled a naïve Brighton & Hove Albion team 4-2 thanks to a historic quartet of hits from superstar Cole Palmer.
Chelsea’s Conference League journey began in the play-off round when they got past Swiss side Servette. Meanwhile, their next opponents defeated Vikingur, Silkeborg and Partizan Belgrade to progress to the league stage.
Gent have made a positive start to the season and are currently third in the Belgian Pro League from nine games. A seventh-place finish last season was enough for them to reach the Conference League play-offs.
here it is 90 minutes preview of Thursday’s Conference League clash.
Chelsea vs Gent H2H Record
This is the first competitive match between Chelsea and Gent.
Current form (all competitions)
|
Chelsea |
people |
|---|---|
|
Chelsea 4-2 Brighton – 28/09/24 |
Ghent 3-0 Oud-Heverlee Leuven – 29/09/24 |
|
Chelsea 5-0 Barrow – 24/09/24 |
Cercle Brugge 2-1 Gent – 26/09/24 |
|
West Ham – Chelsea 0-3 – 21/09/24 |
Club Brugge 2-4 Ghent – 22/09/24 |
|
Bournemouth – Chelsea 0-1 – 14/09/24 |
Ghent 2-0 Mechelen – 15/09/24 |
|
Chelsea 1-1 Crystal Palace – 01/09/24 |
Gent 0-3 Charleroi – 05/09/24 |
|
country |
TV channel/live broadcast |
|---|---|
|
united kingdom |
Discovery+, Discovery+ App, TNT Sports 1, TNT Sports Ultimate |
|
united states |
Paramount+, ViX |
|
canada |
DAZN |
Chelsea’s Saturday’s hero, Palmer, will have the night off because he has not been included in Maresca’s league squad. The manager will make wholesale changes to his starting XI on Thursday, as was the case in the Blues’ Carabao Cup tie against Barrow last Tuesday.
Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Joao Felix will make up the attack for the hosts, while holidaymakers Renato Veiga and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are also set to start.
There are few injury concerns, with Reece James the only absentee.
Chelsea’s predicted line-up against Gent (4-2-3-1): Jorgensen; Disasi, Tosin, Badiashile, Veiga; Lavia, Dewsbury-Hall; Grandson, Felix, Mudryk; Nkunku.
It was a summer of change for Gent and the 2024/25 iteration of the Belgian side has changed a lot from last season.
Sven Kums remains with a calf injury and will not make the trip to west London, while Andrew Hjulsager and Aime Ombga are both doubts for Thursday’s game.
Eidur Gudjohnsen was a cult hero at Stamford Bridge during Jose Mourinho’s first spell at the club and the great Icelander’s son Andri could feature for the away side.
Expected line-up for Gent against Chelsea (3-4-3): Roef; Mitrovic, Watanabe, Torunarigha; Fatigue, Ito, Delorge-Kneiper, Brown; Gandelman, Dean, Deafness.
There is always some risk in making wholesale changes, but Chelsea’s ‘reserve’ squad have at least familiarized themselves with each other at the start of the new season.
The Blues squad is of high quality and this is reflected in the team that Maresca will be able to field on Thursday. Gent should provide a tougher test than Barrow did in the Carabao Cup, but it’s hard to imagine the visitors hurting the hosts too much.
This should be a comfortable home win for Chelsea to get theirs going League of Conferences journey
