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6 Important Chelsea Players To Miss Clash Against Arsenal

Published

3 years ago

November 5, 2022

6 Important Chelsea Players To Miss Clash Against Arsenal

Chelsea will be hoping to claim all three points against Premier League table-toppers Arsenal when they meet at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon before the World Cup break but will play without some of their key players.

The Gunners do have a good recent record at Stamford Bridge having avoided defeat on each of their last three visits – winning the previous two – but Mikel Arteta is coming up against a manager he has a mixed record against in Graham Potter.

In five meetings between the pair, each has two victories to their name with the solitary draw coming last season when Arsenal withstood heavy pressure to secure a point away at Potter’s former club Brighton and Hove Albion.

For both managers, all three points on Sunday are crucial for differing reasons, aside from local pride and supporter bragging rights. Arteta’s side will need to respond to whatever Manchester City do against Fulham and in all likelihood, they’ll require a win to go back to the top of the Premier League table.

Meanwhile, Potter will be looking for another response from his side following their 4-1 defeat at Brighton last week as his first return to the Amex Stadium was one to forget.

Potter will be hoping for as many players as possible to be available for selection against Arsenal but he will definitely be without a number of important players, including the likes of Ben Chilwell and N’Golo Kante.

Chilwell pulled up with a thigh injury during Chelsea’s win on Tuesday and looked far from happy as he was helped down the tunnel, with the World Cup in Qatar only a matter of days away from kicking off.

With that said, Chilwell isn’t the only senior Chelsea player whom Potter will be without for the visit of Arsenal as Reece James and Wesley Fofana (both knee) have been in Dubai this week to continue rehabilitation and it was revealed last month that N’Golo Kante will be sidelined until the new year following a successful operation on his hamstring.

Furthermore, as Potter revealed that he doesn’t expect Kepa Arrizabalaga to feature before the World Cup and that a hamstring problem explains Carney Chukwuemeka‘s absence, that makes it six first-team Chelsea players that are unavailable for selection against the Gunners.

Although the good news for the Blues is that midfielder Mateo Kovacic is in contention to return after missing the win over Dinamo Zagreb: “Kepa no. It’s his plantar fascia, so I don’t think he will play before the World Cup,” Potter added. “[Mateo] Kovacic trained today, so he’s in contention. Carney [Chukwuemeka] has a slight issue with his hamstring that we are getting to the bottom of.”