Chelsea are uniquely qualified to cope with the Club World Conference League vibe

The atmosphere was not palpable.

This, despite the biggest sound and fury that the vast screens and speakers of the cavernous Mercedes-Benz Stadium could muster. Despite the relentless pre-match hype montages, intermittent deluges of FIFA self-congratulation and the blasting of Robbie Williams’ hilariously self-parodic tournament theme song at half time. Despite even the many Club Leon fans who turned up in Atlanta without their disqualified team, just to tell world football’s governing body exactly what they think of them.

In the end, there is only so much you can do with 22,137 spectators in a stadium that can house 50,000 more of them — a jarring disparity that owed something to Chelsea’s opening group D fixture against LAFC being a mid-afternoon kick-off on a Monday in Atlanta, and a lot more to the lack of foresight that FIFA showed in the hasty, hubristic organisation of this competition.

There were tens of thousands of empty seats for Chelsea’s first Club World Cup game (Photo: Liam Twomey/The Athletic)

Newly-crowned European champions Paris Saint-Germain flexing their muscles by dismantling Atletico Madrid in front of a crowd of more than 80,000 in a sweltering Rose Bowl on Sunday felt like the real start of the Club World Cup. The vibe at Mercedes-Benz Stadium was more Club World Conference League.

The good news is that Chelsea’s almost entirely bloodless run to lifting UEFA’s third-tier club competition in Wroclaw last month left them uniquely qualified to navigate such surreal environments, particularly when faced with highly motivated but hopelessly inferior opponents.

LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris had been disarmingly candid about his team’s chances in the build-up to this game, even considering out loud the possibility that Chelsea might opt to rotate their team with an eye on a second group match against Flamengo in Philadelphia that carries more obvious jeopardy.

Enzo Maresca, to his credit, did not do that, even to the point of favouring Nicolas Jackson’s greater familiarity with his attacking teammates over handing an immediate start to summer signing Liam Delap. When the £30million man was finally introduced in the 63rd minute he was greeted with the loudest roar of the day, but not before a motivated Jackson had broken the game open — first for Noni Madueke to bring a good save out of Lloris, then for Pedro Neto to score — with his selfless link-up play.

Delap contributed an assist on his Chelsea debut (Photo: Shaun Botterill – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)

Enzo Fernandez was the only surprising non-starter, and the result of Maresca’s strong selection was a Chelsea performance that was both serious and sloppy. At times LAFC played around and through their Premier League opponents’ half-speed press with alarming ease, only to be met with more appropriate resistance once they reached the final third. A better team might have done Maresca’s side more damage, but this is what group stage openers are for.

Bayern Munich and PSG embarked upon this tournament in a different mind, and the similar swagger in their very different victories has cemented their status as favourites. Statements of intent carry their own psychological power, but they yield the same number of points as the understated handling of their business that Chelsea carried out in Atlanta.

Maresca broadcast his lack of fear of LAFC, and his trust in his own team, by withdrawing club captain Reece James and Romeo Lavia at half-time with the score 1-0 and the game still theoretically in the balance. Minutes and bodies must be managed ahead of the bigger tests to come and their replacements — particularly in the case of Fernandez, who put the game to bed with a trademark run into the box to convert a Delap cross — were more than capable.

Chelsea briefly toyed with surrendering their lead before Fernandez’s second-half goal as LAFC abandoned all caution, and might have done so if Robert Sanchez had not exhibited a confident disregard for his club’s pursuit of AC Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan earlier this month. But at the other end there was always a sense that another gear could be reached, even with Cole Palmer continuing to look less than his cool, clear-eyed best within sight of the net.

There was also a reminder that while Maresca may be adamant that his squad is one left winger short in the absence of Jadon Sancho and Mykhailo Mudryk, it is unlikely to matter in this group stage. Madueke showed against LAFC that can be just as relied upon to bring his consistent aggression from the left flank as from the right, and substitute Tyrique George looked confident and menacing when given the ball in a more transitional second half.

Madueke played off the left (Photo: Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Maresca and Chelsea will be well aware that they can get stronger as this competition progresses, in terms of personnel as well as performance. A mid-tournament window to register new signings that runs from June 27 to July 3 presents yet another Club World Cup quirk, creating the possibility that business not done in the first 10 days of the month could still be concluded in time to bolster them for the business end of the tournament.

By then they might even be playing in front of real crowds. In the meantime Chelsea can settle into life at their Philadelphia Union training base, with two group games spread across the next eight days to come at nearby Lincoln Financial Field while many of the other elite European teams rack up more air miles around the United States.

In a tournament that poses so many unprecedented challenges for participating clubs and their key players, that is no small benefit. An even bigger one might be the time it affords Maresca to address the flaws that are most likely to undo Chelsea’s hopes of a deep Club World Cup run if left unchecked: a press that waxes and wanes, an attack that can become too mechanical and an oddly subdued Palmer.

Make the most of their long Philadelphia stint and Chelsea could establish themselves as credible contenders, just as the Club World Cup coalesces into a credible competition.

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(Photo: Michael Regan – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)