Antonio Conte is traveling without two first-team players as Chelsea prepare to face West Ham United at the London Stadium on Saturday.
Chelsea will be looking to continue their winning run when they make the short trip to East London to take on bitter rivals West Ham United at the London Stadium on Saturday. Ahead of the encounter, Antonio Conte is not bogged down by a lot of injury concerns, with just two players unavailable.
David Luiz continues to be sidelined with a knee injury, although his absence is not causing much problem yet, with Conte having more than enough cover to offset his loss. Danny Drinkwater is the other player unavailable, suffering from a fever for the last three days and in no condition to play.
Conte also said in his pre-match press conference that he will need ‘to check a couple of situations’ before naming his starting lineup. One of these situations could be surrounding Alvaro Morata, with a report by London Evening Standard claiming that the Spanish striker underwent a scan after pulling up in training.
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“‘I try to protect every player. When you play every three days it’s very difficult. It’s impossible to keep your form at the best level if you play without training sessions. Your form can go up and down. This can be dangerous. Also, the risk of injury is very high. I will try to rotate my players.”
“Our squad is not so big, but I am giving my players the chance to show me they deserve to play. When I did this I received a good response from my players.”
If Morata is unable to feature, Eden Hazard could start in a false nine role for the second time this season, with Michy Batshuayi playing 90 minutes for Chelsea under-23 on Wednesday upon his return from an ankle injury.
West Ham manager David Moyes, on the other hand, has a number of concerns to contend with. Sam Byram, Jose Fonte, Winston Reid, James Collins and Andy Carroll are all ruled out, while the likes of Javier Hernandez, Mark Noble and Cheikhou Kouyate will be assessed before the game.
