Christian Pulisic has discounted the narrative that he’s injury prone, generally, and lately that has certainly been the case. He’s been fit and form the past couple months, but the American did pick up a couple knocks this week and his status for the FA Cup final against Leicester City on Saturday is now in doubt.
Pulisic was seen walking gingerly down the touchline, at the end of 90 minutes of action in the surprise loss to Arsenal last night, but perhaps he’ll be able to shake it off and play this weekend.
FA Cup Final FYIs
Kickoff: Saturday May 15, Wembley Stadium, 5:15pm GMT
Team News: Chelsea Leicester City
Starting XI Predictions: Chelsea Leicester City
Chelsea FC news and notes: go here
Odds: Chelsea win 4/9 Leicester City win 7/4
TV, Streaming Info: BBC One, BBC iPlayer, BT Sport 1 and BT Sport Ultimate
Series history: Chelsea wins 57 Leicester City wins 27 Draws 34
“We’re frustrated of course, it’s a bit of an unlucky goal,” Pulisic said after the loss.
“They defended a lot this game. We did what we could and in the end it just wasn’t our day.
“It’s something where we know how to score goals. We have good attacking players and today was a bit of an unlucky day. I wouldn’t say that we’ve had this problem a lot.”
Team News
Tuchel did a ton of squad rotation yesterday, so he should be a great spot here in terms of squad freshness.
In addition to the Pulisic concern, midfielder Mateo Kovacic is recovering from his thigh injury and faces a late fitness test in order to be ready for this trophy clash. The same is true for central defender Andreas Christensen, who is nursing a hamstring problem.
Prediction: Chelsea 2, Leicester City 1
The Foxes have reached this stage for the first time in 52 years, but we think it’s going to be Chelsea who add on to the trophy cabinet.
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.