It was shortly before 6pm on a surprisingly cool Monday evening in Los Angeles that Chelsea's players returned to the Drake Stadium pitch for their second training session of the day. Yet this one would not be as intense as the first.
With a handful of travelling media gathered toward one of the corner flags and a group of invited guests stationed on the halfway line, Thomas Tuchel and his coaching staff put Chelsea's players through a far lighter session. There were the obligatory stretches. Small possession drills. And then gruelling sprints along the length of the pitch; Antonio Conte would have been proud.
There were two players absent, however. Ben Chilwell was in good spirits as he made his way past the small crowd that had gathered on the UCLA campus but he did not undertake any of the work out on the grass. Thiago Silva also didn't lace his boots and instead undertook a massage.
