Newcastle United will be looking to take advantage of Chelsea’s absentees when they make the trip to Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
The Blues looked as though they might have been going into game with a relatively clean bill of health but were hit by a few issues in the week.
They were unable to come through their 3-1 win over Norwich on Thursday evening unscathed.
The big news is that Reece James will not be available after he was dealing with muscular problems following the victory over the Canaries.
The Chelsea right-wing-back has been one of their stand-out players when available this season and showed his very best at St James’ Park earlier in the campaign.
He scored two of the six goals he has managed this term on Tyneside in his side’s 3-0 win against a sorry United side.
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His wing-back partner, Ben Chilwell, remains unavailable with the knee injury that he sustained over the festive period.
Meanwhile, both Cesar Azpilicueta and Christian Pulisic have been dealing with an illness. The former did not travel to Carrow Road on Thursday while the latter was withdrawn at half time.
Whether they will be in contention against the Magpies remains to be seen but Azpilicueta, in particular, is unlikely to be brought back into the team by Thomas Tuchel.
Marcos Alonso was not involved against Norwich either as he still recovers from Covid-19 and is also unlikely to be re-introduced.
The last of the players unlikely to feature for Chelsea against Newcastle is Callum Hudson-Odoi who continues to combat problems with his Achilles.
Those six absences leave Tuchel extremely short in the wing-back department as each of them have been used on either the right or left-hand side on occasion this season.
That could well be an area that Eddie Howe looks to target with Saul Niguez and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, both central midfielders, among the remaining possible options in the wide areas.
That being said, the Newcastle boss will be well aware that Sunday’s hosts do still have plenty of firepower going forward with Kai Havertz and Mason Mount both in great form.
Here is the potential line-up that Tuchel will select: (3-4-3): Mendy, Christensen, Thiago Silva, Rudiger; Loftus-Cheek, Jorginho, Kante, Saul; Ziyech, Havertz, Mount
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