For the second year in a row, Chelsea will be spending our summer on the other side of the Atlantic, as we tour the USA for our pre-season training schedule and a series of matches against British and European opposition.

• Get more information and tickets for all our USA Tour 2023 fixtures

In total we will play in five different American locations in 2023, all on the country’s East Coast and four of which have hosted Chelsea games before. The exception is Atlanta, where we face Newcastle United at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in our first-ever trip to the state of Georgia.

The other four states are all familiar destinations for Chelsea – in some cases we have even played at the same stadium on more than one occasion – and you can find out all about them as we run through our history in each location below.

US Tour 2023 schedule

For access to general sale tickets, click on the links below.

19 July  – Chelsea vs Wrexham – Kenan Stadium, Chapel Hill - general admission tickets sold out! Club Chelsea packages still available to purchase here

22 July – Chelsea vs Brighton – Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia

26 July – Chelsea vs Newcastle – Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta

30 July – Chelsea vs Fulham – FedEx Field, Landover

2 August – Chelsea vs Borussia Dortmund – Soldier Field, Chicago

North Carolina

It was only last year that we were in North Carolina most recently, although this will be our first time in Chapel Hill, with both our previous visits to the state being to the city of Charlotte. Our 2022 trip was a very local tie, as we took on hometown team Charlotte FC.

There was plenty of entertainment on offer for those in attendance at the Bank of America Stadium too, although not a happy ending for the Chelsea supporters. On Raheem Sterling's first game for the club, it was our own American Christian Pulisic who opened the scoring, but Charlotte equalised from the penalty spot with just seconds left on the clock and then came out on top in the resulting shoot-out.

Our previous match at the Bank of America Stadium also ended in a 1-1 draw and penalty shoot-out, against a Paris Saint-Germain side featuring current Blues Thiago Silva and Christopher Nkunku in 2015. That time PSG took the lead before Victor Moses levelled, and we ended up winning on penalties when Thiago put his effort wide and then our goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois slotted in the winning kick.

Pennsylvania

We have previously played at the next venue we will visit this year, although it was some time ago when we took on AC Milan, managed by future Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti, at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field back in 2004. Eidur Gudjohnson and Didier Drogba gave us a 2-1 lead at half-time, but we couldn't hold on as another man who would go on to represent Chelsea, Andriy Shevchenko, netted a late winner.

That was the second time we faced Italian opposition in Pennsylvania that summer, as we had already beaten Roma 3-0 in Pittsburgh four days earlier. Joe Cole plus summer signings Mateja Kezman and Didier Drogba all scored, the Ivorian netting in his first Chelsea game, to give us a comfortable victory, despite both teams being reduced to 10 men when Kezman and Olivier Dacourt saw red for a second-half brawl.

More recently, we visited Chester as European champions in 2012 to face an MLS All-Stars side which featured David Beckham and Thierry Henry. Although John Terry and Frank Lampard both found the net, we went down to a late goal again, the Americans scoring to make it 3-2 in injury time.

Maryland

This will be Chelsea's third time playing at FedEx Field in Landover, which also hosted Blues matches a decade apart in 2005 and 2015. The first of those saw an American team taking on the reigning English champions for the first time ever, and it was local side DC United who actually went ahead from a corner. However, their lead lasted less than five minutes before Damien Duff's brilliant volley squared things and then Arjen Robben and Hernan Crespo combined on the counter for the Argentina striker to make the final score 2-1 to the Blues.

A decade later, it was the English champions against the Spanish champions as we faced Barcelona in a game of intensity and supreme quality. It started with a fine solo effort from Eden Hazard, as he took on and beat half the Barca team on his own, but Luis Suarez and Sandro's replies for the Spaniards were almost as good. Thankfully a brave header from Gary Cahill, taking a punch full to the face from the keeper in the process, levelled things up before we scored all our spot-kicks to win the shoot-out.

Illinois

Last but by no means least, 2023 will see Chelsea competing in Chicago for the first time when we visit Soldier Field for a game against German side Borussia Dortmund. However, we did play in Bridgeview, around 12 miles south-west of Soldier Field, when we took on the MLS All-Stars in 2006.

It ended in defeat, although the Blues left the game feeling hard done by after Didier Drogba had a goal ruled out for offside and Salomon Kalou was denied by a goal-line clearance, before Dwayne De Rosario smashed in the only goal of the game from long range to win it for the All-Stars.