When and where?
Chelsea v West Ham United
Premier League
Stamford Bridge
Monday 15 August 2016, 8pm BST
What’s the story?
Ninety-two days after the Hammers left the pitch at Stoke City to end the 2015/16 season, it’s time for the action to start all over again.
Slaven Bilic’s men get their Premier League campaign underway with a trip to London rivals Chelsea, who will be under the leadership of new manager Antonio Conte for the first time.
Chelsea will be looking to recover from a below-par 2015/16 campaign, which saw them finish well off the pace in tenth position – just a year after lifting the Premier League title.
As they look to turn their fortunes around they have turned to former Juventus and Italy boss Conte, who led his country to a quarter-final place at Euro 2016 this summer.
They spent big to bring in Leicester City’s title-winning midfielder N’Golo Kante and Marseille striker Michy Batshuayi this summer, while Mohamed Salah and Papy Djilobodji moved through the exit door.
In pre-season, the Blues, like West Ham, spent time training in Austria. They followed that by taking part in the International Champions Cup – a tournament which saw them defeat Liverpool, lose narrowly to Real Madrid and beat AC Milan, all in the United States.
They concluded their pre-season preparations with a 4-2 win over Werder Bremen last weekend, with Eden Hazard, Oscar, Diego Costa and Pedro all on target.
Team news
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Slaven Bilic admitted that one or two positions remained open in his thinking going into this game.
With Darren Randolph, James Collins, Angelo Ogbonna and Dimitri Payet all being involved at Euro 2016, they came back to pre-season training at different times, with Payet last to return last weekend.
They have all played their part either in the Hammers’ UEFA Europa League qualifiers against NK Domzale or the Betway Cup clash with Juventus and it remains to be seen if they will be involved at Stamford Bridge.
However, Aaron Cresswell and Manuel Lanzini will definitely be out with knee injuries, while Gokhan Tore returned to training last week after a knee injury of his own.
Any links between the two?
Angelo Ogbonna will be reunited with his former Juventus boss Antonio Conte, who has taken the reins at Chelsea this summer.
Elsewhere, Chelsea winger Victor Moses spent last season on loan with the Hammers, making 21 Premier League appearances with one goal, while current Hammers loanee Gokhan Tore was in the Chelsea academy between 2009-11.
How do I get to the game?
Click here for a map of Stamford Bridge, here for the latest news on the Underground and here for National Rail.
Where can I watch the game?
The match will be broadcast live in the UK on Sky Sports, with coverage beginning at 7pm BST.