Emerson Palmieri will finally get his chance to start in the league for Chelsea tonight against Burnley.
That already looked likely after Marcos Alonso’s ban was confirmed, but it became certain when Antonio Conte announced it in his press conference yesterday.
Given that there’s not much left riding on Chelsea’s remaining league games, it will simply be fun for fans to see their new signings in action.
But more than that, it was important to give the Italian a chance to show what he can do.
Conte is always reluctant to give players outside his chosen XI a chance unless he needs to, which explains why Palmieri hasn’t had a proper run in the side yet. The issue with that would be if we reached the summer with the January signing hardly having played.
Whoever comes in as a manager will not at least have the footage of a game or two to see whether Palmieri is likely to fit in to whatever system he chooses to play next year.
