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Chelsea began their official pre-season schedule with a 2-1 victory over Championship side AFC Bournemouth, courtesy of second-half goals from Armando Broja and Ike Ugbo.
Thomas Tuchel's side fell behind in the 66th minute to an Emiliano Marcondes strike, but soon responded with two goals in rapid succession. A raft of players were brought into the side for Chelsea, but it was the young strike pair that handed them a morale-boosting win.
As for the Cherries, Scott Parker's side showed immense promise in some areas of the field. Their full-backs, along with David Brooks, were some of the positive aspects of their narrow defeat.
On that note, we list the top five major talking points from Chelsea's pre-season victory at the Vitality.
#1 New-look Chelsea start with a back three
There was a lot of talk about Tuchel's experiments in formations ahead of the new season. The German boss had absolutely no time to assemble a squad structure on the pitch, but despite collective discussions on a back four, he opted to start with Lewis Baker, Dujon Sterling and Malang Sarr.
The trio were completely solid in the first-half as they restricted Bournemouth to just one wayward shot on goal.
Danny Drinkwater and Conor Gallagher started in a double pivot, with Marcos Alonso and Callum Hudson-Odoi flanking the wing-back positions. Christian Pulisic, Tammy Abraham and Hakim Ziyech formed what was a strong front three.
#2 Chelsea grow into the game with the help of width
From the Cherries' perspective, young David Brooks was the liveliest of players owing to his glossy touches, trickery and fearlessness on the right-hand side.
Chelsea were on the backfoot in the opening exchanges of the game, but slowly found their groove as the minutes wore on. Their main route of attack was when Danny Drinkwater found space from a deep position and pinged diagonals to Hudson-Odoi.
The latter was at his blistering best, running at Bournemouth left-back and crossing with conviction. One of his crosses was met neatly by Abraham, but Mark Travers was equal to it with an outstanding save from point-blank range.
Drinkwater also played a lovely through ball to Abraham, who fired in a fierce shot straight at Travers. Another header from the Chelsea number 9 went just over the bar, which portrayed the Blues' threat from crosses.
#3 Sloppy Chelsea switch off as Bournemouth score
The likes of Jake Clarke-Salter, Matt Miazga, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ike Ugbo, Armando Broja and stand-in skipper Edouard Mendy came on at half-time.
It was a tactical tweak from Tuchel, who stationed Abraham and Broja upfront. Chelsea, however, took time to settle into the second-half as well. Conor Gallagher was robbed off the ball while being the last man for his side, but much to his relief, Brooks failed to hit the target in a one-versus-one battle with Mendy.
The Chelsea shot-stopper rescued his side with a sensational save from close range to deny Kyle Edwards after the former West Bromwich Albion youngster had been played in by Jack Stacey.
The breakthrough came for the hosts in the 66th minute, with Stacey and Brooks once again combining beautifully on the right wing. The Bournemouth right-back whipped in a dangerous cross into the six-yard box, where summer signing Emiliano Marcondes popped in to rifle home the opener.
As far as Chelsea were concerned, they failed to deal with the cross or track the attacking midfielder's run. It was almost as though the tired Chelsea legs paused for a moment before realizing it was too late.
#4 Quick-fire goals from Chelsea result in the win
Just when it seemed like Chelsea would struggle to come up with the answers after falling behind, the pace of the game soared.
A sumptuous delivery from Baba Rahman found Broja in the middle of the box between the Bournemouth centre-backs. The striker laid it down on his chest and found the back of the net with aplomb.
He was involved once again, tussling with the opposition defenders and winning a corner out of nothing. Ross Barkley aimed his ball into the near post, where Ugbo stood firm to leave Travers with absolutely no chance.
Chelsea held on to win, but it was all about Barkley, Loftus-Cheek and Gallagher's industry in the middle, as well as Ugbo and Broja's combined finishing. The 3-5-2 system is something Tuchel could implement if Chelsea are behind, in need of goals.
#5 Who could break into Chelsea's first-team?
It's only a two-week period, but pre-season is a key provider of Chelsea 2021/22's first impressions.
Tuchel gave as many as 21 players the chance to impress in the middle, with Conor Gallagher the only man to spend the entire 90 minutes on the pitch. Perhaps, he is one that the Chelsea boss is looking to draft into the first-team.
Gallagher huffed and puffed in the middle and was safe with his distribution, barring one scare that almost led to the opening goal of the match through David Brooks. Whether or not he can move up the pecking order with Loftus-Cheek and Barkley competing remains to be seen.
Broja could be in the first-team in place of Giroud if Chelsea fail to sign a new striker and Abraham departs.
In defense, the likes of Malang Sarr and Lewis Baker impressed fairly in the opening 45 minutes, but with Chelsea poised to sign Jules Kounde from Sevilla, the club's young defenders could be heading out on loan.
