By Satish Sekar  Satish Sekar (August 10^th 2025)

Dismantled

Club World Cup winners Chelsea tuned up for the forthcoming 2025-26 season by thrashing ten-man Italian giants AC Milan 4-1. Andrei Coubis was given his début by Milan boss Massimiliano Alegri, but it would be a match the 21-year-old who had returned from loan to Serie B outfit Sampdoria.

AC Milan was punished for Yunus Musah’s foul on Jamie Gittens on the left wing. Reece James curled in the freekick which was carelessly deflected into his own net by Coubis after 5 minutes. 3 minutes later Chelsea carved Milan apart on their right flank, culminating in Portuguese winger Pedro Neto’s pin point cross for João Pedro (João Pedro Junqueira de Jesus) to head in to double Chelsea’s lead after 8 minutes.

Just ten minutes later Coubis’ misery was complete as he trudged off the pitch – sent off by referee Michael Salisbury in a friendly for dragging down João Pedro when the Brasilian was through on goal after he had been left exposed defensively by his teammates.

Liam Delap had a Chelsea début to forget two days ago, but he made up for that disappointment this afternoon with a brace after 67 minutes and a penalty after 90-minutes – with Milan’s consolation by Youssouf Fofana sandwiched between them.

Chelsea’s Dominance

Chelsea dominated the match – the score could have been more emphatic. Neto could and arguably should have made it secure within quarter of an hour after a neat one-two with Cole Palmer played him in with just goalkeeper, Mike Maignan to beat, but he shot tamely straight at the keeper, keeping the scoreline down. Five minutes later Milan was reduced to ten men. They were almost punished again as Palmer’s freekick struck the woodwork with Maignan beaten.

With half time approaching Raphael Leao put the ball in Chelsea’s net, but it was rightly disallowed for offside. There was still time for Marc Cucurella’s effort to be cleared off the line before the interval.

Less than ten minutes into the second half defender Davide Bartesaghi showed why he was a defender as he robbed Fofana of an open goal and fluffed the chance to halve the deficit. With just over half an hour remaining, Delap came on and just over five minutes later he converted a penalty won after his cross resulted in Estêvão Willian being tugged back by Musah. Three minutes later Fofana pulled one back for the visitors after Alexis Saelemaekers put him through from the left – Fofana scored to goalkeeper Robert Sánchez’ right.

There was still time for Delap to double his tally with an assist from Andrey Santos.

The match also marked the return to Stamford Bridge of Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek with AC Milan and the début of Luka Modrić after more than a decade playing for Real Madrid. Chelsea’s opening match in the English Premier League of the 2025-26 season will be against Crystal Palace in a week’s time.