Presumably the risk of further postponements will only increase after this weekend, once certain players depart for at least two rounds of matches im order to play in the AFCON. By my reckoning, those players will be: Traore (Villa) Keita (Liverpool) Mendy (Chelsea) Kouyate (Palace) Mendy (Leicester) Mane (Liverpool) Sarr (Watford) Auba (Arsenal) Amartey (Leicester) Partey (Arsenal) Ayew (Palace) Saiss (Wolves) Masina (Watford) Elneny (Arsenal) Trezeguet (Villa) Salah (Liverpool) Troost-Ekong (Watford) Iwobi (Everton) Ndidi (Leicester) Onyeka (Brentford) Iheanacho (Leicester) Dennis (Watford) Mahrez (Man City) Benrahma (West Ham) Bailly (Man Utd) Cornet (Burnley) Boly (Wolves) Pepe (Arsenal) Zaha (Palace) Djenepo (Saints) Bissouma (Brighton) I think that's every side except for Spurs, Newcastle, Norwich and Leeds? With Leicester and Watford seemingly hit the hardest. Leicester are due to play Burnley (a) and Brighton (h), plus a potential rearranged fixture. Watford are due to play Newcastle (a) and Norwich (h), plus a potential rearranged fixture. From our point of view, Wolves being two CBs down would be no bad thing.
Well that’s the title race over. Although I assume Liverpool will have all their games cancelled while the AFCON is on
Has anyone seen Tuchel’s claims dismissing Chelsea as title contenders due to injuries and covid Look at their starting 11 and bench! Most were first choice! If he can’t cope with minor rotation during the busiest period with a squad of that depth and quality then he won’t be there much longer Perhaps even end of this season if they don’t go far in the champions league and are a distant third / fall away too quickly in the league. And definitely if they are leap frogged by Arsenal
Is this just a case of getting your excuses in early? Tuchel is not about to say that losing players has improved Chelsea's chances, so he either says nothing (tricky, with almost daily press releases/news conferences) or comes up with a sob story about not having his first choice starting XI, plus a strong bench. I suspect that this has been done to stop the Chelsea faithful, and their board, from directing any criticism at Tuchel. In short, he's covering his back, with the added advantage that if Chelsea do achieve something (Champions League, etc), Tuchel can then big himself up as a master tactician, able to juggle his 'threadbare resources' to produce wins.
Of the six subs they didn't use last night, the two youngest were 22 years old - Havertz (who cost them about £70m) and Sarr (with over 100 first team career appearances under his belt). The rest were closer to 30 than 20. We could have only dreamt on having such unused substitutes last season. Hell, even this season. Hell, even within our starting XI. You don't want to have to call upon Kante? Well guess what, don't. Rest him. How about instead giving some game time to a midfielder who has Champions League and international experience and to whom you're handing out a six figure sum to every week?
It will be interesting in Man Utd turn up and put in a performance tonight. I would like to see them beat Burnley although I would be be surprised if the Ginger Mourinho managed to get the points. Burnley's current position looks false to me and they are capable of stringing together some results in the games in hand to push them up the table.
