A packed summer of international football meant that many Premier League managers didn't get the opportunity to have the sort of pre-season preparation that they would have liked.
Players who represented their country in the Copa America, Euro 2020 or the Olympic football tournament required a rest, while those not involved those competitions were in need of match practice to increase their sharpness.
Keen to get as many of his Chelsea squad as possible into peak condition ahead of what will be a big season, Thomas Tuchel called upon some well-known names for a friendly against National League side Weymouth on Sunday.
As you might expect with a gulf of 106 places between the two sides in last season's football pyramid, the reigning Champions League holders ran out easy winners in the match.
The Blues had been in action less than 24 hours prior to the fixture, defeating Crystal Palace 3-0 in their Premier League opener. However, in a testament to the strength of their squad, there was still plenty of quality on display during the fixture at Chelsea's Cobham training facility.
Leading 8-0 at halftime, Tuchel's men restricted themselves to just the five in the second period against their overmatched opponents. The overall 13-0 victory saw out-of-favour striker Michy Batshuayi grab five goals, with Ross Barkley notching a hat-trick of his own.
The likes of Callum Hudson Odoi, Thiago Silva and Reece James each also found the net in the friendly - which served as the National League side's final pre-season fixture.
Aside from the goalscorers, names such as Ben Chilwell, Kurt Zouma, Emerson Palmieri, Ethan Ampadu, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Davide Zappacosta all also featured for Chelsea on what was a tough afternoon for the south coast minnows.
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However, despite his team being on the end of an absolute hiding, Weymouth boss Brian Stock found a slew of positives to draw upon from the experience.
"The scoreline, no one wants to lose 13-0 but when you look at the movement, the power, the pace - you can see the top-level and big gulf," Stock said after the game, per The Sun.
"The lads kept on going right to the end. Thomas Tuchel came over and said some very nice words to us. Apart from the scoreline, everything else was positive."
A photo of Tuchel giving his post-match pep talk to the Weymouth players has since gone viral. Seeing one of the world's most successful coaches go out of his way to spend time with the non-league side makes for a heartwarming visual.
"We knew when we saw the starting line-up that there were going to be some internationals, but I didn’t know they were going to field a whole team of them," said Stock of his reaction to Tuchel's team selection.
"I’m pretty sure the majority of the players won’t play a team like that ever again in their lives – If they do, they’d have gone on to have a very good career!"
A look at both team's upcoming fixtures illustrate the gap between them perfectly. Chelsea travel to Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, while Weymouth will be hosting Boreham Wood.
Fair play to Tuchel for giving the non-leaguers an experience they won't soon forget.