Chelsea’s injury concerns are easing ahead of next week’s Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur. The Blues started the season against ...
Chelsea’s injury concerns are easing ahead of next week’s Carabao Cup tie against Tottenham Hotspur.
The Blues started the season against Brighton and Hove Albion without three summer signings, while Christian Pulisic suffered a setback in training ahead of the game at the Amex Stadium.
But last week’s 6-0 thrashing of Barnsley marked debuts for Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell.
And while the former made his Premier League bow against West Brom on Saturday evening, the latter wasn’t included in Frank Lampard’s matchday squad for the draw at the Hawthorns.
The reason for this is because the Blues head coach decided not to rush him back into Premier League action.
“I believe they are fit enough to start, but I also have to take into consideration the fact that we play another game with quite a tight turnaround on Tuesday and then another on Saturday, and then some players might play three games for their countries,” Lampard said.
“With Ben I might be a little bit more cautious to see, because his injury has been quite a challenging one.”
Chilwell is expected to play a part in the Carabao Cup fourth round at Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday night and he could replace Marcos Alonso at left-back.
Edouard Mendy could also start after completing his move from Rennes.
Meanwhile, wingers Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic both are progressing well following knee and hamstring injuries respectively, and are expected to be involved soon having rejoined training.
Alonso, Mateo Kovacic, and Thiago Silva were substituted against the Baggies, but that was for tactical reasons and the trio should be available to face Spurs.
In both games last season, Chelsea emerged victorious and Lampard will be looking to improve on his record against Jose Mourinho.
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