Chelsea are heading on tour this summer, taking to the United States of America.
The Blues will play five games on their pre-season trip to the East Coast of the USA. Their fifth and final match was confirmed on Sunday with Borussia Dortmund set to play the Blues in Chicago. Chelsea will kick off their tour against League Two side Wrexham, owned by Hollywood stars Rob McElhenney and Ryan Reynolds, in North Carolina.
Philadelphia will then host Chelsea vs Brighton & Hove Albion before Atlanta stages a game against Newcastle United. Fulham will play the Blues in Maryland before the Dortmund game on August 2.
The Premier League Summer Series tour has been designed to ensure that the Blues do not cross multiple time zones with the club's former manager Thomas Tuchel unhappy with the travelling that hampered last summer's trip to the USA. Every game bar the final one against Dortmund will be played in the Eastern Standard Time zone with Chicago in the Central Standard Time zone.
Eastern Time is five hours behind the United Kingdom and Central Time six. Tickets are on general sale for the Wrexham, Brighton, Newcastle and Fulham games with Dortmund tickets going on general sale at 9am CST on May 2.
"We are delighted to visit Chicago as part of our US tour in 2023 and play in an iconic venue at Soldier Field," Tom Glick, Chelsea's president of business said. "We are proud of our strong fanbase in the US and we look forward to meeting our fans in Chicago this summer."
Chelsea travelled to the US last summer but played their first game in Las Vegas, which is eight hours behind the UK, before heading east to play two more games. The tour was criticised by Tuchel, who said after one match that he 'could feel the energy level drop after Las Vegas and after the Charlotte game because of the amount of travelling, very humidity, and very hot temperature'.
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