The other two games against Chengdu Blades on 26th July and against a Malaysian Select XI on 29th July will all be LIVE on the message board.

After the Far East tour, Chelsea head off to Russia to be involved in a mini-tournament (The Railways Cup) with AC Milan, Lokomotiv Moscow and Sevilla. This tournament takes place over the weekend of 1st/3rd August and it is hoped that these games will also be LIVE on the message board.

A virtually full squad boarded the plane this morning. Exceptions were Didier Drogba who is staying behind for treatment on a knee injury and Michael Ballack who is on holiday after his Euro 2008 disppointment. Ballack is expected to join up with the party at some point.

JT, Lamps, the two Coles, Cech, Ricky, Sheva, Anelka, Essien, Kalou, Deco and Bosingwa have definitely travelled.

Scolari contiued with his enthusiasm for tour by saying, "This will be the first time I have taken a team to play there and it will be my first match in charge of the Chelsea squad. I know the Chinese fans are passionate about the game and we are excited about playing in front of them against some strong opposition."

Speaking of his first few weeks as Chelsea boss, Scolari said, "My evaluation is that the players started to train as a little group, and after three days more players came. After three days, even more players, and now in the last four of five days we have all the players in good condition, but not our best condition.

"It is not too different from how I prepared in Brazil when we also had two weeks maximum to train, and after we have more games. Here now is the same, we have two weeks for training and we travel to Asia to play three games, and then to Russia for two more games.

"The difference is Chelsea gives the best conditions for the players and coaches to train hard, because we have all the best faciltities.

"The players are not ready totally yet, but we are starting to build a new team and a new philosophy. This is just the beginning, and I expect after these five games that I have a general idea about all the players and a system."