Roman Abramovich will not attend Chelsea’s Champions League clash despite making a trip to London.
Chelsea owner Abramovich has been pictured at Stamford Bridge along with Israel's current president Isaac Herzog to support the club’s anti Semitism initiatives.
But Abramovich will instead attend another charity event rather than his club’s tie with Juventus. Abramovich is one of English football’s most committed foreign owners despite his ongoing visa issues and has generously supported Covid charity initiatives as well as other worthy causes.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel was asked whether Abramovich was a “special owner” and if he wanted to “put on a show” for the Russian billionaire.
Tuchel said: “I think first and most important, he is a huge football fan. He is in love with the game, with the details.
“He wants to know everything about what’s going on here in Cobham and we keep him informed and keep him posted because he has a genuine interest and love for the game. This is the most important and makes things very special.
“I have a feeling it’s about this. He wants for this, to be entertained, to be competitive and he wants to have the right attitude on the pitch. This is what he created here, it’s amazing. We are blessed to enjoy our time here in this club and to keep on progressing.”
Meanwhile, Juventus boss Max Allegri is facing an injury crisis after defender Danilo joined the growing casualty list.
Danilo has suffered a groin injury which will keep him out for eight weeks while Giorgio Chiellini, Mattia De Sciglio, Federico Bernardeschi, Aaron Ramsey and Dejan Kulusevski will all miss the Champions League clash with Chelsea.
Juventus top scorer Pablo Dybala - who has six goals - is also a doubt but will make the trip as the Italian giants struggle to replace the goals they lost when Cristiano Ronaldo left in the summer.
Allegri, whose side face Chelsea with both teams hoping to finish top, said: “Everywhere Cristiano has gone, he's always been the top scorer. We have a lot of players who can score goals, but at the moment we aren't finding them.
"We must improve our finishing. We're creating good chances and making mistakes with the final ball. We've scored 18 goals and conceded 15 (in Serie A), we need to find more goals as a team.
“Now we face off for first place against a team that's on top of the Premier League and won the Champions League last season.”
