Pat Nevin, former Chelsea, Everton and Scotland winger writing in his Football Extra newsletter:
The pre-season friendlies are in full swing and let’s be straight about this, the players generally hate these games, whatever they say.
They clearly haven’t had enough rest in the summer, it is a grind getting your body back into peak shape, especially if the accumulated injuries from last season haven’t been allowed to fully recover.
The games themselves are weird affairs, where you would like to win but that is nowhere near the most important thing. Fitness, integrating new players, possibly a new manager and sometimes a new system are each more important. You also know full well that it is a hotch-potch of a team selection to give players minutes. The fans, mass media and social media will read far too much into every game and every performance.
From within the team itself, there are different motivations. A young or new player being given his first chance will be racing about like an overexcited spaniel. Other experienced players will be easing themselves back into it, the primary concern in their minds is to be fit and healthy come the first weekend of the Premier League season.
Deep down they don’t worry if they get thumped by Celtic or DC United on their US tours, nobody at Chelsea or Aston Villa will remember or care about these results in two weeks’ time.
Unless of course you are a DC or indeed Celtic fan. The Celts just beat Chelsea and Man City. Now that is impressive pre-season form or is that just Scottish bias.