Kante and Jorginho are unavailable, but Christian Pulisic will return when Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanderers face off at Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Chelsea will be desperate to return to winning ways when they play hosts to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon. And Thomas Tuchel has greeted a mixed bag of updates on the team news front ahead of his side’s latest fixture.
The good news is that Andreas Christensen should be at the Chelsea manager’s disposal after recovering from an illness. But Tuchel will be bereft of the services of four first-team players against Wolves.
Tuchel ruled Kante and Jorginho out of the Wolves game during his pre-match press conference and revealed that he will be without four players on Saturday. The Chelsea boss said, “For N’Golo it comes too early. Jorginho is out as well, these two are missing. Callum and Ben Chilwell are still out.”
In Jorginho and Kante’s absence, Ruben Loftus-Cheek will get another chance to impress, with the English international starting alongside Mateo Kovacic in the middle of the park. Reece James and Marcos Alonso, whose Chelsea future remains up in the air amid links with Barcelona, will be the two wing-backs flanking the midfield duo.
Meanwhile, Christensen might miss out on a starting berth, with Cesar Azpilicueta keeping his spot on the right-hand side of the back three. The Chelsea captain will start alongside Thiago Silva and Antonio Rudiger in the central defensive unit, with Edouard Mendy picking himself between the sticks.
As for the attacking unit, Romelu Lukaku has endured a difficult spell as he has barely started a game for Chelsea. But Tuchel empathised with the Belgian striker during his presser while hinting that he could feature against Wolves.
“I want him to be an important part of the squad, right now he is very important. There is no recruitment and no players are about to leave because it’s simply not possible. We need to adapt all the time, to contractual situations and also individual situations, what we and the players want. We signed a big player, he is a big player.”
“He didn’t come on [at Everton] as we had only three changes, and unfortunately we used one at half-time with Jorginho. Otherwise there was a huge chance we had the same changes as against West Ham, with Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech. He trained very well, maybe he starts tomorrow, we’ll see.”
Despite Tuchel’s comments, Kai Havertz should spearhead the Chelsea attack against Wolves, as winning the game is of utmost importance to avoid getting dragged into the top-four battle. So the only change in the attacking unit will see Christian Pulisic replacing Timo Werner, with Mason Mount being the chief creator for Chelsea.
Predicted Chelsea XI: Mendy; Azpilicueta, Silva, Rudiger; James, Loftus-Cheek, Kovacic, Alonso; Mount, Pulisic; Havertz
