Former Arsenal and England striker Ian Wright believes Chelsea's 1-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday evening could have panned out differently had Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech featured.
With Ziyech ruled out because of a hamstring problem, USA international Pulisic was poised to start and secure his first start in the Premier League since October.
However, the winger's name was a notable omission from the teamsheet when Chelsea confirmed the starting line-up an hour before kick-off.
Much to everyone's surprise, Pulisic's name was nowhere to be seen, immediately sparking fears that he had suffered a fresh injury blow.
And ahead of kick-off, head coach Frank Lampard, who has been relatively fortunate with injury troubles so far this season, having only had to have dealt with a handful, confirmed that the former Borussia Dortmund ace had felt a problem with his hamstring ahead of the trip to Merseyside.
"Christian has a bit of an awareness in his hamstring," Lampard told BT Sport. "He did great last week when he came on, but in the week, he's been feeling a little bit of awareness.
"We've seen two wingers of ours go down recently. We're coming up to the biggest period of the season and players are getting a lot of muscle injuries in their legs.
"Christian, yes, he wasn't quite ready. I hope he is for Tuesday or for next week."
Pulisic's absence from the squad certainly showed, as Chelsea's 14-game unbeaten run came to an end thanks to a first half penalty from Everton midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Though Pulisic was absent, as was fellow playmaker Ziyech, who is nursing a hamstring problem of his own, Chelsea still had no shortage of attacking talent on the pitch, with the likes of Kai Havertz, Mason Mount and Timo Werner all starting.
Nevertheless, Pulisic and Ziyech's absences showed, as Wright pointed out during Saturday evening's Match of the Day.
"No one was comfortable on the ball," Wright told BBC Sport. "Maybe if Pulisic and Ziyech were playing it might have been a different game."
Though credit must be given to Everton for producing an impressive performance to bring an end to Chelsea's impressive unbeaten run, fellow Match of the Day pundit Alan Shearer insisted that the Blues would not have scored if the game had gone on for "two or three hours."
Shearer said: "Their [Everton's] closing down was really impressive. Chelsea didn’t have any space and I thought they were just brilliant.
"Chelsea could have been there for two or three hours and they wouldn’t have scored.
"They just have to forget it and move on to the next game."
