Graham Potter has just been speaking to the Chelsea official app ahead of the game against Arsenal this afternoon, with his team having been announced.
It’s a pretty ropey XI – but that won’t surprise anyone given the injury problems we’ve got.
Kepa Arrizabalaga is out. Reece James is out. Ben Chilwell is out. Wesley Fofana is out. N’Golo Kante is out. Mateo Kovacic and Kalidou Koulibaly are both injured enough to only make the bench.
All of those players would likely be in Potter’s team today – so it’s a pretty devastating gap in the squad. But Potter isn’t giving himself any excuses.
“Having so many injuries adds to the challenge but we’re not he only tema to suffer with having players sidelined,” the Chelsea boss said.
“It is what it is and we have to deal with it, find solutions and keep working hard to find the results.”
We appreciate he’s not looking for excuses before the game has even started. That’s always a recipe for a bad result. In recent weeks he’s been criticised a lot for his experimentation in his lineups, but it should be remembered that a huge amount of that is through necessity.
Let’s hope today goes a bit better.
