Chelsea scraped through to the next round of the Carabao Cup last night needing penalties to beat Southampton.
It was never an easy tie on paper, and Chelsea recently struggled to beat this same team at Stamford Bridge a few weeks back at Stamford Bridge.
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However, things were made slightly more difficult before the game when three players, who would have at least been in the squad and probably starting, pulled up with injury issues before the match forcing Thomas Tuchel to use more of his fringe players than maybe he would have.
And said fringe players didn’t exactly step up to the mark on the night, they were pretty poor and didn’t take their chances to impress.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Cesar Azpilicueta, and Andreas Christensen were all late squad drop outs, and Tuchel gave updates on why after the game, as reported here below by Sports Illustrated.
“Azpi injured his shoulder, let’s see. We hope he will be fit, he is a tough guy. Maybe he will be fit Saturday. Ruben has a pain in his hip, in his joint. Andreas had surgery and should be fine to train Thursday.”
Azpilicueta, Christensen and Loftus-Cheek would have all started tonight, but shoulder, teeth surgery (collision in training) and thigh respectively picked up in training ruled them out. Loftus-Cheek is thought to be the most serious of the three. #CHESOU
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) October 26, 2021
