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Football London
Football London
Sport
Lewis Pangratiou

The five key players Leeds United could be without for Premier League clash vs Chelsea

Chelsea will be looking to return to winning ways on Saturday with a win over a struggling Leeds United side.

The Blues have had their most difficult week of the season so far and Thomas Tuchel will be hoping to see a positive reaction from his team at the weekend.

Defeat to West Ham at the London Stadium meant that Chelsea slipped to third in the Premier League. They followed that up by drawing with Zenit St Petersburg in their final group match of this season's Champions League, a point that saw them finish behind Serie A giants Juventus on the final day.

Nevertheless, despite a slight mishap in form, they're still very much favourites to beat Leeds - and a significantly weaker Leeds at that.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference, as relayed by our colleagues at Leeds Live, Bielsa confirmed that Leeds are likely to be without the injured Patrick Bamford, Rodrigo, Liam Cooper and Kalvin Phillips.

"In this moment, the absentees in attack would be [Patrick] Bamford and Rodrigo," he said. "For the trio defensively, it's [Liam] Cooper and [Kalvin] Phillips."

Robin Koch, who's been out since August after undergoing surgery on his hip is also still out, meaning Bielsa could be without five key players for the trip to Stamford Bridge.

With that in mind, let's take a look at who's available to Bielsa for Saturday afternoon's game.

Full Leeds United squad for Chelsea clash

Goalkeepers: Illan Meslier, Kristoffer Klaesson

Defenders: Luke Ayling, Junior Firpo, Diego Llorente, Stuart Dallas, Pascal Struijk, Charlie Cresswell, Cody Drameh.

Midfielders: Adam Forshaw, Jack Harrison, Mateusz Klich, Jamie Shackleton.

Strikers: Tyler Roberts, Rodrigo Moreno, Joseph Gelhardt, Crysencio Summerville, Raphina, Daniel James.

Even though they currently have a weakened side, Leeds are more than capable of troubling Chelsea and Tuchel will have to be wary of their threat.

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