Raheem Sterling and Matthijs de Ligt transfers complete Thomas Tuchel's brave Chelsea formation

The off-season did not feel that long without an international tournament. With the elongated internationals heading into mid-June, the intrigue over Chelsea's change of ownership and transfer speculation, the start of pre-season has come around quickly.

It will be a month from today when Thomas Tuchel travels with his squad up to Goodison Park for Chelsea's first Premier League clash of the 2022/23 campaign against Everton.

Chelsea's pretty abysmal record at Everton was aided by April's dismal 1-0 loss that proved to be a vital three points for Frank Lampard in the Toffees' hunt for survival. The tension around both clubs will be vastly relaxed next month but the intrigue is unlikely to dwindle.

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Tuchel has returned to Cobham, along with his players filtering back from their summer holidays, to enjoy the Surrey sunshine before jetting off to Los Angeles for the first stop in a busy tour of the USA. By the final pre-season match against Arsenal in Orlando, we should have a greater idea of what that opening line-up could be.

There is not only the prospect of new signings, with Raheem Sterling and Matthijs de Ligt major targets this summer, but the potential of further squad exits, loans and maybe an unexpected breakthrough akin to the one Trevoh Chalobah embarked upon 12 months ago.

It seems foolish to pen any potential Chelsea team given, at the time of writing, the club have not officially signed anyone, but let's try anyway and revisit after the Everton game.

Going ultra-conservative for my first of two potential formations the German could field, I've stuck with the usual 3-4-2-1, the most used system since Tuchel