Kante Chelsea
Fikayo Tomori, Kante & Wijnaldum Liverpool vs Chelsea

Chelsea will take on Fulham in their next Premier League clash on Friday night before that game, Graham Potter has seen the return of several first-team players.

The Blues have made numerous signings during the January transfer window but at the same time, they had a dozen players out injured. Thankfully, four of them have returned to training through the week and the manager is hopeful they will be able to play some part against Fulham.

He said in his press conference: ‘We’ve got Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Raheem Sterling and Ruben Loftus-Cheek back in the squad. They’re not ready for 90 minutes but certainly in the squad.

‘Wesley Fofana’s been training partly with the team and he’ll be stepping that up next week.

‘And then we’re still without Denis Zakaria, Christian Pulisic, Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante and Armando Broja.’

The return of Sterling and Reece James will especially be a big boost for the Chelsea boss but the pair is likely to get around 15 to 20 mins towards the end of the match – if required.

Having said that, there are still eight players who will be missing from the matchday squad because apart from the names mentioned above, Edouard Mendy is also an absentee because he is recovering from surgery on a fractured finger.

Joao Felix picked up a red card in the away fixture at Fulham and this game will be the last of his three-game suspension.

Chelsea have brought in several players so thankfully, the manager will not be short on personnel on Friday but he will have to make sure all the new signings come into the tempo and rhythm of his tactics and help deliver the three points.

The Blues are currently 10th in the league, one point ahead of Aston Villa so if they fail to pick up a win on Friday and Villa will their respective game then Chelsea will fall down to the second half of the table.