Chelsea 3–1 Real Sociedad in the final friendly
Joao Pedro and Morgan Rogers lit up Stamford Bridge on Saturday as Chelsea beat Real Sociedad 3–1 in their last pre-season match (1) (2) (3). Rogers scored on his debut, his first Chelsea goal, and Pedro was red hot again ahead of what could be a career year (1) (6). The win sends your team into the league opener in decent shape.
Enzo Fernandez booed on his return
The bigger story was the reception. Sections of the Stamford Bridge crowd booed Enzo Fernandez when he came back after a summer of pushing for a move (2) (4) (5) (10) (11). City still want him and the £120m saga has clearly left a mark. Alonso's side won the game 3–1, but the boos are what fans will remember.
Alonso's first words on the Bridge
Xabi Alonso was pleased with the sharpness. "It was very good last preparation game. For some players, it was the first [friendly] and the last one. For us, there were some good things, some things we can improve. It's normal at this point" (2) (3) (9).
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Squad trimmed ahead of the window close
Two loans are done. Dastan Satpayev joins Burnley, Ryan Kavuma-McQueen joins Portsmouth (1). Liam Delap turned down a move to a Champions League club despite being surplus to requirements at £40m (7). Marc Cucurella also left for Real Madrid this summer for €55m (13).
CFC+ crashes, refunds issued
The club's streaming service CFC+ went down during the first half of the Sociedad match and Chelsea have issued refunds (12). On the ownership front, Stefan Borson says Mark Walter selling his LA Lakers stake is nothing to worry about at Chelsea, where Walter controls 12.7% via BlueCo (8).
Fan-reaktioner
The mood in the Chelsea subreddit is split. Some fans are still tracking City's pursuit of Enzo Fernandez through Fabrizio Romano, while others are more interested in monitoring Nicolas Jackson, who is valued at £60m with Villa, Spurs and Atletico watching. At least one fan was buzzing about the performance of Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer. The most relevant thread is the Romano update on City's ongoing Fernandez interest.
