Watford face Chelsea in the Premier League this week and there’s a chance that the Hornets could pick up something from this game.
On paper, the Blues are the outright favourites to secure all three points but on Tuesday manager Thomas Tuchel had revealed that he has various injury concerns going into Wednesday’s encounter.
For starters Ben Chilwell, Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante are unavailable and will not be available for selection. Now to make matters worse the manager has admitted that the trio of Reece James, Jorginho and Werner will also be tough and go.
Tuchel said in his pre-match press conference: ‘For the game tomorrow at Watford, for sure we will be without Chilly, Kova and N’Golo who are all out and then we have some doubts over some other players that we need a bit more time on, to do some examinations on before deciding whether they can be involved.
‘Reece James, Jorginho and Timo Werner we will have to wait and then decide on. They all finished training with us today but there will be some last-minute decisions on those players for sure.
‘It will be challenging but it has been challenging before. We won’t change our routine.
‘We have a tight communication with the medical and fitness department and we tried to predict the load, look at who is overloaded and underloaded, and from there we see what we will need in the next game.
‘As you know, we take it step by step. If you look too far ahead you will see there are tough weeks coming. That is why we focus on the details, the next game, maybe on the next two games where we can rely on our predictions because we have fantastic support from everybody.’
This is the first time since Xavi (3rd) and Andrés Iniesta (4th) in 2012 that two midfielders from the same club have been named in the top five for the Men's Ballon d'Or.
◉ 3rd – Jorginho
◉ 5th – N'Golo Kanté#BallondOr pic.twitter.com/iYooIEXkjU— Squawka (@Squawka) November 29, 2021
Will the Chelsea midfield be the cause of concern vs Watford?
Watford are not in the greatest of forms but that also means they have nothing to lose from this game.
It’s a match that they are expected to lose which means Claudio Ranieri will not shy away from throwing the kitchen sink at the Blues. And now that Kovacic and Kante are out and Jorginho is also a doubt, Watford will give this one a real go.
If Jorginho is also ruled out then Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ross Barkley are likely to pair up in central midfield and these could be put under some major pressure but the home side. RLC played beside Jorginho on Sunday against Manchester United and the England international had a really average outing.
The Blues boss also has an option of using Mason Mount but there’s no surety if the 22-year-old will succeed in the deeper role or not.
Chelsea do have the quality to see this one through but with so many influential players missing, it won’t be a surprise if Watford make Tuchel’s side work really hard for all three points.