Hakim Ziyech Pictured in Chelsea Blue for the First Time
By Tom Gott
New Chelsea signing Hakim Ziyech completed his first training session with the Blues on Saturday and admitted he was looking forward to getting started at his new club.
The former Ajax man agreed a £37.8m deal to join Chelsea back in February, but has been on a brief holiday after the Eredivisie season was brought to an early end.
Day one at Cobham for our new signing! ? pic.twitter.com/NaXje6EHel
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) July 11, 2020
He travelled to London on Friday in anticipation of his first day of training, which saw him undergo a light session on his own ahead of joining up with the rest of the squad over the coming weeks.
Ziyech took to Instagram after the session to write: "First session done for Chelsea. Very excited and happy to be here and can’t wait to see you guys at the bridge soon."
He is unable to play until the 2020/21 season and is also not permitted to feature for Chelsea in this year's Champions League. Given the Blues are already 3-0 down to Bayern Munich from the first leg of their last-16 tie, that European run probably isn't going to last much longer.
Fellow new recruit Timo Werner is yet to physically make the move to London as the Bundesliga season only finished a few weeks ago. The German is being given some time off before jetting off to the Bridge.
Manager Frank Lampard has already admitted that signing the expensive pair puts him under more pressure, but that's simply a necessary consequence of making your team stronger in the transfer market.
Chelsea could have done with both Ziyech and Werner on Saturday as they fell to a humiliating 3-0 loss to Chris Wilder's Sheffield United, blowing the race for Champions League qualification wide open.
Chelsea finished the game with 76% possession but did very little with the ball. As noted by Opta, no team has ever fallen to such a heavy defeat while simultaneously posting that kind of possession stat.
The Blues remain third in the Premier League but could be down to fifth by the time they next play, with Leicester City and Manchester United both yet to play this gameweek.