The longest journey of the season awaits Chelsea this week, as we travel to Kazakhstan to take on Astana on Thursday. It’s not quite the other side of the world, but it’s certainly a journey: it’s an 8-hour flight to Almaty, where the match will take place. (Astana’s home stadium is being renovated.) Kick-off, in absolutely freezing conditions, will be 4-5 hours before the usual time.
So that sounds like super fun, and I’m sure those traveling will be delighted.
But we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do, though I’m guessing a good portion of the squad will be left back in England, and not just those who are ineligible (Cole Palmer, Wesley Fofana, Roméo Lavia, Ben Chilwell) or injured (Wesley Fofana, Reece James, maybe Roméo Lavia after his hamstring twinge against Spurs).
Mykhailo Mudryk had been dealing with an illness over the past couple weeks, but hopefully he’s now all better.
[Choose wisely](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCY6xYLHqQBPklcc6VbI7Lh9V3gxw2Ao-l_ytasy-9XOU07Q/viewform?usp=sharing).
([Live results](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdCY6xYLHqQBPklcc6VbI7Lh9V3gxw2Ao-l_ytasy-9XOU07Q/viewanalytics))