Chelsea team captain and right back Reece James is set to feature for the first time in over a month, having seemingly recovered from the hamstring injury that has kept him out for over a month.
This past weekend, he took to Instagram, and posted an IG story captioned: “happy Sunday, p.s I’ll be back real soon.”
EFL Cup 3rd Round FYIs
Chelsea FC vs Brighton & Hove Albion
Kickoff: Wed. Sept. 27 7:45 pm, G tech Community Stadium
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Blues Team News
So does that mean he’ll play against Brighton on Wednesday?
The League Cup would be the perfect competition for the English international to get back into the swing of things. While Reece James is coming back, the west London side has new absentees to contend with:
Malo Gusto and Nicolas Jackson, who both earned red cards in the 1-0 home loss to Aston Villa yesterday.
Jackson earned his fifth yellow card (and thus a red upon accumulation) for having obstructed his opponents’ free kick and dissent. He hit five yellows in just six games, and all of them came through his dissenting the referee’s decisions.
Gusto got a straight red for his aggressive, studs-up challenge on Lucas Digne. And this is why Blues boss Mauricio Pochettino, whose team is off their worst start in 45 years, is saying they “need to grow up.”
He’s not wrong.
“We need to grow up like a team, not only in an individual way,” Pochettino said.
In this type of game, we are competing and want to win and football is about winning. But also players, when they are young, need to learn, and experience and make mistakes.
“That’s why we feel disappointed as there are too many situations like this.”
Finally, The Telegraph reports that assistant coach Bruno Saltor has “secretly” left the club, after receiving a buyout on the remainder of his contract. According to multiple reports, the club will not be posting an official confirmation or message on his departure.
Saltor came over from Wednesday’s opponent club, a little over a year ago, when Chelsea hired Graham Potter.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
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