CHELSEA could unleash a brand new SPINE at the Club World Cup with six new stars hoping to make their debuts today. The Blues are kicking off their US adventure against MLS heavyweights LAFC

The summer of soccer will take a new look this year with the FIFA Club World Cup, which comes to the U.S. for the first edition of the expanded competition that will see 32 teams from around the world compete for a share of the $1 billion prize purse.

Olivier Giroud will not recognise many faces at his former club Chelsea but is looking forward to LAFC showing how MLS stacks up.

The 38-year-old goalkeeper says the US-based club will struggle to compete with the Premier League clubs, or even others in the group.

Chelsea begin their FIFA Club World Cup journey on Monday against Major League Soccer's LAFC. Enzo Maresca's side enjoyed a positive season winning the UEFA Conference League for the first time while finishing in the Premier League top four.

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Maresca isn't ruling out a "very difficult" Club World Cup opener against LAFC: "I'm never confident, I don't know if it's something good or something bad, but I think because of the technology today, any game can be difficult. They can watch many games about us, we can watch many games about them, so every game becomes very complicated."

On paper, Group D is a battle between two strong outfits fighting for first place, with the other two sides hoping that they are the tournament’s dark horse. Chelsea, Flamengo, Esperance de Tunis and LAFC make up this group,