Chelsea enjoyed outstanding success last season. Tomas Tuchel, who came against the backdrop of the failures of his predecessor, immediately managed to transform the team’s game, which led to the conquest of the coveted trophy. In the Premier League, the retirees finished in fourth place, which in general can be considered a serious success, given the intense competition for a place in the top four. The retirees have achieved the greatest success in the Champions League. Having overcome the group stage without any problems, Chelsea entered Atletico Madrid, with which they experienced no problems, ending in a 3:0 win on aggregate. Porto did not become a problem in the quarterfinals either, dragons won 2:1 following the results of two meetings. It was more difficult with Real Madrid. In Madrid the London club got a 1:1 draw and did not guarantee anything for themselves before the return leg. Nevertheless, they managed to beat the creamy with a score of 2:0 at home and in the final Chelsea were waiting for Manchester City. Despite the fact that the townspeople were considered the favorite, the pensioners won this meeting thanks to the only goal of Kai Havertz. So far, Chelsea have not made any major acquisitions, but a transfer to Romel Lukaku is on the way. The return of the Belgian should cost more than 100 million euros. The retirees will enter the new season without Fikayo Tomori, Olivier Giroud and Victor Moses, they left the club. Billy Gilmore was also loaned to Norwich.
Middlesbrough finished tenth last season in the Championship and were 13 points behind the playoff zone. Neil Warnock’s team scored five victories in test matches, including success with Plymouth (2:1), Rotherham (1:0) and Bishop Oakland (3:0). The smoggy started the new season with a draw against Fulham (1:1), spending the entire match in defense and scoring a return goal at the end of the meeting.