Chelsea will welcome Fulham at Stamford Bridge on Friday night in the Premier League. This will be Chelsea’s first in two weeks after their goalless draw with Liverpool at Anfield. The blues lost 2-1 in the first round against Fulham, and Joao Felix was given a straight red card in that game.
Graham Potters’s side has been struggling with injuries this season as crucial squad members have missed most of the season’s first round. N’Golo Kante, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, and Raheem Sterling have all been battling injuries this season.
Providing an update on the fitness of some first members at a press conference ahead of their Premier League encounter with Fulham at Stamford Bridge, Graham Potter said: “Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Raheem Sterling, and Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] are back in the squad, not ready for 90 minutes but in the squad. Wesley [Fofana] has been part training partly with the team and he will be stepping it up next week. We are still without Denis [Zakaria], [Christian] Pulisic, Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante and Armando Broja.”
Despite Chelsea enjoying a successful January transfer, the blues lost one of their key members to their rivals Arsenal on the transfer deadline day. Chelsea sold Jorgen to Arsenal for a fee of £12.5 million.
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Reacting to Jorginho’s departure from Arsenal, Graham Potter added: “For the four months I worked with him, he was fantastic. A great person, and when you look at his service to the club, he’s been brilliant with what he achieved. Sometimes you have to make a decision as a football club; with his contract situation, and the opportunity to secure something more for his family, it was one of those that was a win, win, win. From my perspective, I wish him well. He’s a top professional and a top person.”
Asked whether the new January signings can immediately impact the team, He said: “It’s a combination of a few things. There is a youthful dynamic, and you can see the direction we’ve gone down in terms of the type of player we’ve tried to sign. We’re trying to build something for the now and the future, and it’s always about how they help the players that are here and how we lift performance.
“We’ve had a pretty unprecedented injury situation to deal with here and so lots of things have happened. We hope we’ve learned a lot in that period, gained a lot of strength from that period, and as I say we can attack the second half of the season with positivity.”
Enzo Fernandes will likely make his Chelsea debut against Fulham on Friday at Stamford bridge if all the papers works are sorted out before Friday.
