The 2013 Premier League season is in the books. Now, Chelsea FC return to the pitch with hopes of embarking on a league-title run in 2014. The club is continuing its summer tour this afternoon and will face German outfit Werder Bremen. The club friendly scheduled for 11 a.m. ET will be held at the Weserstadion in Bremen and can be live streamed here.
Having transformed his squad during the summer transfer window, manager Jose Mourinho believes he has finally constructed a side that will compete for the 2014 Premier League crown. Though other clubs have bolstered, the Portuguese boss is adamant that it pales in comparison to the first-choice XI that will be on hand at Stamford Bridge.
"We are strong," Mourinho said (via the Telegraph). "I don't want to speak about the others because obviously the others are strong too, but we are going to be stronger. We needed to transform our squad a bit and especially the striker and midfielder positions. We identified clearly the profile of the players we needed."
"With Diego Costa, we always had the feeling from six or seven months ago that we could possibly get him. And we thought that it would be good for us not to buy a striker in January because we knew we could get the striker in the June."
"Cesc Fabregas was just a consequence of what was going on," he added. "The profile was clearly identified, but I always thought Cesc would be a Barcelona player because he is so good and being a Catalan and with the end of Xavi's career coming, I thought that Fab would stay. But it was about him being so strong about this position and coming back to English football, a bit like me. I was in a big club and I wanted to be back. He was at a big club and wanted to be back."
"So when he heard that information he'd decided to come back to London, we knew he was there and he was the one we wanted."
With the additions of Fabregas and Costa, Chelsea have the missing pieces to finish last season's task.
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