The Premier League finally resumes competition this weekend after what felt like a very long international break. The very first fixture on the docket is West Bromwich Albion’s visit to Chelsea for a midday clash.
There is a lot of team news to get into here, so without further ado, we’ll just dive right in and break it all down.
West Brom at Chelsea FYIs
Kickoff: Sat Apr 3, Stamford Bridge, 12:30
Chelsea Starting XI Prediction: go here
PL Position, Form Guide: Chelsea- 4th, 51 pts DWWDD West Brom- LDLWD
TV/Stream: BT Sport, BT Sport’s App and homepage
Team News
Tammy Abraham and Thiago Silva are long term injury absentees, but both have resumed full training. The pair will likely be eased back into the fold, so if they do feature here, it would likely be only in an off the bench role.
Midfield maestro N’Golo Kante returned to Chelsea last week having had to leave France camp early due to a minor issue with his left hamstring. It remains unclear if he’ll be fit in time for feature here. Elsewhere Mason Mount was a doubt for England’s World Cup qualifier against Poland on Wednesday night, having missed part of training due to an unspecified fitness issue, but it turned out to be nothing in the end.
He ended up featuring, and doing just fine. Also, Callum Hudson-Odoi missed out of England’s U21s loss to Portugal with a shoulder injury. He was dismissed from Three Lions camp and returned to Chelsea early.
Kante and CHO are unlikely to be risked here, as larger games are looming. Finally, Jorginho didn’t feature for Italy in the internationals after he fell ill and picked up a knee injury. However, both problems appear to be minor as he was seen participating in full training this week.
Prediction: Chelsea 1, West Brom 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.