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Thomas Tuchel has backed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to “create his own history” and break the number nine curse at Chelsea.

Chelsea completed a £10million deadline-day deal for Aubameyang, reuniting the 33-year-old with his old Dortmund boss Tuchel.

Aubameyang scored 79 goals in 95 appearances under Tuchel at Dortmund, before switching to Arsenal in 2018.

The Gabon striker was stripped of the Gunners captaincy by Mikel Arteta in December 2021 amid disciplinary issues before moving to Barcelona earlier this year.

Chelsea boss Tuchel joked earlier this summer that his players were scared of the number nine shirt, with the striker’s jersey left vacant after Romelu Lukaku’s loan return to Inter Milan.

This is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first Champions League game since 2017 when he was at Borussia Dortmund.

He only played in the Europa League with Arsenal and Barcelona.

Chelsea are the odds on favourites to defeat Dinamo Zagreb in tonight’s Champions League opener but they are well down in the rankings of potential tournament winners.

Once again Manchester City are the favourites to lift the trophy before a ball has been kick with Betfair’s latest odds putting them at 9/4 to win the trophy - Erling Haaland’s arrival this summer may have something to do with that.

PSG are the second favourites at 5/1 more than double the odds on last year’s winner Real Madrid who are currently going at a 10/1 to repeat their heroics from last season.

Latest odds on Dinamo Zagreb vs Chelsea

Dinamo Zagreb: 13/2

Draw: 7/2

Chelsea: 4/9

Latest odds for Champions League winner 2022/23

Man City: 9/4

PSG: 5/1

Liverpool: 6/1

Bayern Munich: 13/2

Real Madrid: 10/1

Barcelona: 12/1

Tottenham: 14/1

Chelsea: 18/1

Dinamo Zagreb forward, Bruno Petković, believes his team can reach the knockout rounds of the Champions League this season which is a feat the Croatian side have never accommplished.

He told UEFA.com: “I consider myself a very competitive person. Our goal is to advance to the next round. We will go game by game, and I think we can achieve great things this season.”

Chelsea have handed new signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang the number nine shirt after manager Thomas Tuchel recently joked his players think it is “cursed”.

The last 11 players to wear the shirt – including three club record signings up front, but also a holding midfielder and a defender – have struggled to make a prolonged impact at Stamford Bridge.

“It’s cursed, it’s cursed, people tell me it’s cursed!” said Tuchel last month. “There was not a big demand for number nine, nobody wants to touch it.”

Here we look back at the trend ex-Arsenal man Aubameyang will try to buck:

Thomas Tuchel makes six changes to the Chelsea line-up from the team that faced West Ham at the weekend. Cesar Azpilicueta brings some experience to the back three alongside Wesley Fofana and Kalidu Koulibaly whilst Mason Mount is recalled into the midfield.

Ben Chilwell starts ahead of Marc Cucurella and Kai Havertz is recalled with Christian Pulisic dropping to the bench.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also starts and makes his debut for Chelsea.

Dinamo Zagreb XI: Livakovic, Moharrami, S. Ristovski, Sutalo, Peric, Ljubicic, J. Misic, Ademi, Ivanusec, Orsic, Petkovic

Chelsea XI: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueata, Fofana, Koulibaly, James, Kovacic, Mount, Chilwell, Havertz, Aubameyang, Sterling

The Champions League returns to the Stadion Maksimir tonight after a three-year absence and Dinamo Zagreb head coach, Ante Čačić, is excited for the game.

“When I see everything that this match brings, I can say this is the biggest match of my career.” he said.

It is the first time in Chelsea’s history that they have faced Croatian opposition and it is also Thomas Tuchel’s centenary appearance as head coach of the London side.

It remains to be seen whether Edouard Mendy will recover in time from the controversial collision with Jarrod Bowen which led to West Ham’s late equaliser being ruled out. “He was in a lot of pain, and we have to see,” Tuchel said after the game.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is training wearing a mask after his jaw was broken during a burglary at his Barcelona home last week, and has travelled with the squad as he waits for his Chelsea debut.

Fellow new recruit Denis Zakaria could also make his debut and is included in the squad but Thiago Silva has been left at home to rest and N’Golo Kante is recovering from a hamstring injury and is unlikely to feature.

Predicted line-up: Kepa; Fofana, Koulibaly, Cucurella; James, Jorginho, Kovacic, Chilwell; Sterling, Havertz, Mount.

After all the unnecessary noise about VAR, Thomas Tuchel at least – and at last – offered one assessment that was rather clear.

“We wanted to restart our season today,” the Chelsea manager said after the visit of West Ham United. “And we did.”

It could have been so much worse, and not just because they initially went 1-0 down and looked rather leaden for so much of this 2-1 win. It was how it would have put Tuchel under serious pressure, and looking devoid of ideas, just at a point when the new Chelsea owners had put far more trust in him – and given him far greater influence – than any of the club’s modern managers.

The performance was made all the worse by the fact that the German had deliberately made his side much more defensive, a response to the mistakes made in the 2-1 defeat to Southampton on Wednesday.

Far from a restart, then, the match threatened to be a regression and maybe a total tailspin.