Chelsea have a number of injury concerns heading into their Wednesday night Champions League clash with Ajax. However, this injury concerns are unchanged from Friday, when manager Enzo Maresca provided updates ahead of the Blues beating Nottingham Forest, at their ground, 3-0.
Chelsea’s defeat of the Tricky Trees was enough to force the club’s hand, and end their very short-lived Ange Postecoglu experiment.
Champions League Match Day 3 of 8 FYIs
Chelsea FC vs Benfica
Kickoff: Wed. Oct. 22, 8pm. Stamford Bridge, London, UK
UCL Standing, Form: Villarreal 35th, 0 pts, LL Chelsea 18th, 3 pts LW
Blues Team News
Go here for the updates that Maresca provided on the likes of Cole Palmer, Benoit Badiashile, Reece James and Enzo Fernnadez. Other than that, we don’t have any real “team news” for you.
When it comes to predicting the first team, well, we think it’ll be very similar to what we saw against Forest, but just some rotations here there- mostly in the final third, and again in the middle of the park.
Chelsea Predicted Starting XI vs Benfica
Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Tosin Adarabioyo, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Romeo Lavia; Estevao Willian, Marc Guiu, Neto; Joao Pedro
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor 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.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter