The Reason for Chelsea's 3:30pm Kick-off this Thursday

Even without key players Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson in their Conference League squad, Chelsea have dominated their first four games in the competition, netting an impressive 18 goals.

They are also flying high in the Premier League, just four points off the leaders Liverpool, giving manager Enzo Maresca a better start than many would have imagined.

His side face Astana, of Kazakhstan, in their next Conference League game at 3:30pm this Thursday – but why the strange kick-off time?

Why are Chelsea kicking off at 3:30pm?

The Conference League was always going to give Chelsea the opportunity to play against less traditional European sides. So far, they have beaten teams from Switzerland, Belgium, Greece and Armenia. Up next is an away trip to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan.

Chelsea will actually be playing in Almaty, around 1,200 km away from Astana, due to renovations on Astana’s current stadium. This means the local time is five hours ahead of England, so the match will be kicking off at 8:30pm local time, hence the bizarre 3:30pm kick-off time for those in England.

Chelsea face an eight-hour flight to the city of Almaty, one of the longest away trips possible for a European away day.

Once the players have travelled over 6,000 kilometres they will then be met by harsh winter conditions that have also affected the kick-off time.

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Temperatures are set to be as low as -15 degrees. This means the time of the match could not be made any later, to a more traditional European kick-off time in London, as temperatures would continue to drop overnight.

Despite missing star man Cole Palmer, who ranked at no.3 in FourFourTwo's list of the best attacking midfielders in the world right now, Chelsea’s incredible squad depth allows them to start players such as Joao Felix, Christopher Nkunku and Enzo Fernandez in the Conference League.

Whilst the freezing conditions may be a hurdle for the Chelsea side, Astana sit 23rd in the Conference League table, having won just one game, suggesting anything but a win for Maresca’s side would be a poor display.