Chelsea face Guangzhou Pharmaceuticals on Wednesday, in the first of three matches to take place in Asia.

He told the club's official website: "I am very much looking forward to our visit and games in China. 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.

"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 or 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 games," he explained.

"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 facilities.

The Brazilian also stated that his side are not match fit, but the Asian trip will give him an opportunity to decide his preferred starting line-up.

He continued: "The players are not ready yet totally, 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 will have a general idea about all the players and a system."