Chelsea are gearing up to take on FC Copenhagen in the second leg of the UEFA Conference League Round of 16 this Thursday but there are other things on the mind of manager Enzo Maresca. With one eye on the second leg and the other on the London derby against Arsenal on Sunday, there could be a heavily rotated squad rolled out on Thursday.
Maresca spoke about three of his players that have been dealing with an illness in Reece James, Cole Palmer, and Christopher Nkunku who picked up a virus of sorts before the Leicester match. James missed out on the matchday squad entirely but it’s unlikely he was going to play anyway after playing the full 90 minutes in the first leg on March 6th.
Palmer and Nkunku both looked sluggish and off the pace of the match as they struggled to make any real impact. The young Englishman looked particularly out of sorts as he missed a penalty for the first time in his Premier League career which would have made the match much more comfortable for the Blues.
Maresca said in his press conference this week:
"Cole, Reece and Christo today has been their first session. They had some problems. Today they are all better. As I said, yesterday they were not even here all of them and today they trained with us and we will see tomorrow if we use all of them."Enzo Maresca on 3 key players
James has the most obvious replacement ready to go in Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah who both have lined up at right back in recent weeks. Fofana looked excellent against Leicester and was a spark plug of attack up the right flank and Chalobah has been solid since returning from a back injury.
Palmer is usually the first name on the team sheet and it would be strange to see him come off the bench but perhaps Maresca could opt to play him in the second half if the situation called for it. Nkunku or Joao Felix occupied his attacking midfielder role in previous UECL matches but Maresca could opt for Enzo Fernandez there instead.
He could then slot in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall in at DM alongside Moises Caicedo or if he is feeling lucky, could play Mathis Amougou in that position. The Danish squad are not the most talented but they showed they are capable of surprises as they held out for long periods against the Blues and scored a set piece goal to make the second leg more tenuous.
Enzo Maresca will have to decide if he trusts the current depth of his squad or not and weigh which of the two matches is more important. A trophy in the UECL would do wonders for fan and team morale but a win or even a draw against Arsenal would be a great boost to the club’s top four hopes. We are leaning towards a rotated side against Copenhagen as he did in the first leg with the big names coming off the bench if the situation calls for it.