Chelsea suffered yet another blow this weekend, losing to Brentford in the Premier League and both Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk missed this match.
The Blues went down 2-0 at home and this embarrassing defeat has now pushed Chelsea into the second half of the Premier League table. Saturday’s loss was their fourth of the season and things are now looking really bleak for Pochettino because they could end this matchweek in the 15th position.
Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk were both missing from the matchday squad and towards the end of the match, the Chelsea manager had to rely on unknown faces like Deivid Washington and Ian Maasten but Pochettino, on Friday, had made it clear that these two would be unavailable for selection.
The missing pair both suffered minor injuries during the week plus Enzo Fernandez and his partner welcomed a baby.
‘Both of them felt a small muscle strain yesterday, but I hope they will be available for the next game,’ Pochettino told TNT Sports(h/t Metro).
‘It’s not a big issue, should be fixed in the next few days. We are going to miss both of them as they are very good players, but we have a very big squad to cope with that.
‘Yes maybe [the arrival of the new baby for Enzo Fernandez] was the reason he could not train and felt uncomfortable yesterday. But he is going to rest now and recover as quick as possible.’
Enzo Fernandez has been the only creative-minded midfielder in Chelsea’s team this season and even Mudryk has picked up his pace in recent weeks so their absence was a big blow to the manager’s plans.
Thankfully, the injuries are not serious and they should be back when Chelsea take on league leaders Tottenham next Monday. The Blues take on Blackburn Rovers in a midweek EFL Cup tie but we don’t think Pochettino is going to use either Enzo Fernandez or Mudryk in that game.
The Spurs match is going to be make or break for the Chelsea manager and he will be desperate to have his best players on the pitch that night. If Mykhailo Mudryk and Enzo Fernandez are back then the Chelsea team will be a whole lot stronger but everyone in that team will have to massively pull up their socks if they want to inflict the league’s first defeat to the Lilywhites.
