Chelsea take on Brentford in the quarter-final of the EFL Cup and Thomas Tuchel might have his biggest challenge in terms of naming a strong starting line up.
The Blues had tried to postpone their game against Wolves but the Premier League had refused their request. And so when they dropped two points, Tuchel was understandably raging with anger.
Now, Chelsea will have to do it all over again, this time with as many as nine players missing.
Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Kai Havertz are all ruled out with COVID which means the Chelsea boss will have to name a patched up forward line.
Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell are also COVID positive but thankfully Tuchel has proper backups in those areas. Alonso will play on the left-hand side while Reece James will play on the other side.
Hakim Ziyech is out with a calf injury and while it’s not too serious but he won’t be able to play his second game in a span of just four days.
Both N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic played during the weekend and the manager has just confirmed in his press conference that neither of them will be fit enough to play against Brentford.
Thomas Tuchel says he may be forced to draft in players from the U23s and the academy for #CFC's Carabao Cup clash at Brentford.
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) December 21, 2021
The absence of these two midfielders would have been a serious issue but thankfully Jorginho has returned to training so he is a guaranteed starter on Wednesday.
The manager said in his pre-match press conference: ‘Jorginho had a negative test, it was a wrong positive, so he is back training.’
Here’s the full list of absentees for Chelsea against Brentford:
Romelu Lukaku – COVID.
Timo Werner – COVID.
Kai Havertz – COVID.
Callum Hudson-Odoi – COVID.
Ben Chilwell – COVID.
Hakim Ziyech – Calf Injury.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek – Ankle Injury.
Trevoh Chalobah – Fitness issue.
Andreas Christensen – Knock.
Despite missing so many players Chelsea are still the favourites going into this quarter-final but the Blues have won just one out of their previous five matches so Brentford really stand a strong chance at knocking the visitors out of the EFL Cup.
