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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
James Robson

Chelsea FC XI vs Brighton: Mount starts - Confirmed lineup, team news, injury, Covid latest for Premier League

Mason Mount and Callum Hudson-Odoi join Jorginho in being recalled to the Chelsea team to face Brighton tonight.

Thomas Tuchel is still without longer-term absentees Reece James and Trevoh Chalobah, while Andreas Christensen is self-isolating after testing positive for Covid last week.

Ben Chilwell is out for the season with anterior cruciate ligament damage.

Tuchel has chosen against fielding the same defence as he did for the 1-0 defeat to Manchester City at the weekend, with Malang Sarr not involved from the start.

Chelsea sit 13 points adrift of Premier League leaders City going into the game and Tuchel has reiterated his frustration over the number of injuries and Covid cases that have undermined his side’s title challenge.

He said: “It is a bit boring for myself because it is the same answer all the time, but key players are key players because they have key behaviour and key things in clubs and dressing rooms.

“That is why you need them and that’s what brings you through a season and City is obviously over-performing on the very maximum. If you want to close the gap from where we came from, if you want to close the gap, we were never shy to say it and to try it, and we still are, but then you need to over-perform and for over-performance you need everybody.

“In the last weeks we had the feeling if you have a negative Covid test and you are a defender, just play, you are pushed to play, you are rushed to play. I don’t know in the last weeks if we had the chance to play the back five in the same lineup.

“I think you will end up in September or August [when it last happened]. It feels like that. Maybe it is not, but it feels like that and so you lack a little bit of routine, of automatic behaviour.

“It is very normal and for the circumstances in which we are in and for the circumstances which are not our fault, I am happy for where the team is. I am happy the way we behave and there is no need to doubt the process, no need to doubt the team and what we do. We are still strong and we will bounce back and never give in.”

Chelsea XI: Kepa; Azpilicueta, Silva, Rudiger; Hudson-Odoi, Kante, Jorginho, Alonso; Mount, Lukaku, Ziyech.

Subs: Bettinelli, Hall, Sarr, Kovacic, Loftus-Cheek, Saul, Havertz, Werner, Pulisic.

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