Chelsea begin their Conference League league phase campaign on home soil as Belgian outfit Gent visit Stamford Bridge.

Enzo Maresca endured a tricky start to his tenure in west London but the Italian’s side have found their groove in recent outings and head into Thursday’s game having won their previous four games in all competitions.

Last time out, the Blues dismantled a naive Brighton & Hove Albion side 4-2 thanks to a historic quartet of strikes from superstar Cole Palmer.

Chelsea’s Conference League journey began in the play-off round as they edged past Swiss side Servette. Their upcoming opponents, meanwhile, downed Vikingur, Silkeborg and Partizan Belgrade to make the league phase.

Gent have started the season positively and currently sit third in the Belgian Pro League through nine games. A seventh-place finish last season was enough for them to make the Conference League play-offs.

Here’s 90min’s preview of Thursday’s Conference League clash.

Chelsea vs Gent H2H Record

This is the first competitive fixture between Chelsea and Gent.

Current form (all competitions)

Chelsea’s hero from Saturday, Palmer, will have the night off as he’s not been included in Maresca’s league phase squad. The manager will make wholesale changes to his starting XI on Thursday, as was the case for the Blues’ Carabao Cup tie against Barrow last Tuesday.

The likes of Christopher Nkunku, Pedro Neto and Joao Felix will make up the hosts’ attack, while summer arrivals Renato Veiga and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are also poised for starts.

There are few injury concerns, with Reece James remaining the only absentee.

Chelsea predicted lineup vs Gent (4-2-3-1): Jorgensen; Disasi, Tosin, Badiashile, Veiga; Lavia, Dewsbury-Hall; Neto, Felix, Mudryk; Nkunku.

It was a summer of change for Gent and the 2024/25 iteration of the Belgian team is much-changed from last season.

Sven Kums continues to nurse a calf injury and won’t make the trip to west London, while Andrew Hjulsager and Aime Ombga are both doubts for Thursday’s game.

Eidur Gudjohnsen was a cult hero at Stamford Bridge during Jose Mourinho’s first stint at the club and the Icelandic great’s son, Andri, could feature for the away side.

Gent predicted lineup vs Chelsea (3-4-3): Roef; Mitrovic, Watanabe, Torunarigha; Fadiga, Ito, Delorge-Kneiper, Brown; Gandelman, Dean, Surdez.

There’s always some risk in making wholesale changes, but Chelsea’s ‘reserve’ team have at least grown familiar with each other at the start of the new season.

The Blues’ squad is deep in quality and that’s reflected by the team Maresca will be able to put out on Thursday. Gent should provide a sterner test than Barrow did in the Carabao Cup, but it’s hard to envisage the visitors giving the hosts too much grief.

This should be a comfortable home win for Chelsea to kick-start their Conference League journey.

Prediction: Chelsea 3-0 Gent

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