Chelsea have no fresh injury concerns today for their clash with Crystal Palace, though Thiago Silva is suspended following his red card in the 5-2 defeat to West Brom.
Thomas Tuchel has told his players to put Wednesday’s Champions League triumph against Porto behind them and their minds back on the fight for top four.
Chelsea bounced back from last week’s shock loss to West Brom with a 2-0 win their quarter-final first leg against Porto. But Tuchel is determined not to suffer another setback in their league campaign.
The German said: “It is for us very important that we are fully focused on every challenge that we have.
“That we forget the games and results that we had and accept every new challenge and embrace every new challenge from the start.
“It gives us no advantage that we have a 2-0 lead against Porto when we play against Crystal Palace. We have to start over again and at the end of the season this is the challenge to be fully focused.
“This can give you a huge boost in self-confidence because tomorrow is not the day to fulfil all our goals. Tomorrow is only 90 minutes. You just have to focus for 90 minutes.
“You don’t have to think about Tuesday and then about the fixture against Manchester City. We do it step by step and we can rely that we are fully fit. We arrive without big injuries and hopefully it stays like this and this should give us self confidence.”
Tuchel has warned that more upsets could be waiting for his side as they continue to battle on three fronts.
He added: “There are teams waiting for us, who play a little bit less, like West Brom during the international break. They had the chance to prepare better than we had.
“Like Crystal Palace maybe they had some more sleep than we had in the last days. We need to accept it and rely on ourselves, but this is the main target to find a good balance between recovery, between training and to be focused on point and take step by step.”
Confirmed team
Chelsea XI: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Zouma, Rudiger, Hudson-Odoi, Jorginho, Kovacic, Chilwell, Pulisic, Havertz, Mount.
Subs: Kepa, Alonso, Emerson, James, Kante, Ziyech, Abraham, Giroud, Werner
Injury list: None
Suspended: Thiago SIlva
