Thomas Tuchel has been left high and dry by a series of unfortunate events so far this season. Going into the fifth game of the league campaign, he is down to just two available first-team midfielders.
Rival fans will not be breaking out the violins with the money being spent on the squad and the quality available to Chelsea. When fit, Jorginho, N'Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic are among the best trios in world football, especially to play in a double-six as Tuchel likes. The issue is keeping them fit and finding a way to bed in fresh blood.
Conor Gallagher was meant to come in and help out the ageing and injury prone senior players ahead of him. Off the back of his brilliant loan season and Crystal Palace he was seen as the extra pair of legs, the goalscoring touch for a position that lacks consistent threat for Chelsea.
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His start to life at the club has been unfortunate. Buoyed by making his debut, first start and maiden home appearance Gallagher has taken his energy to a new level - though it hasn't all gone to plan. Gallagher seems to be struggling to adapt to the deeper, more disciplined role required of him. It's a makeshift choice Tuchel has had to go with due to other areas of his squad being incomplete.
It's not the end for Gallagher at Stamford Bridge by any means but it has dented Tuchel's plans against Southampton. The German is now left with only Jorginho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek as natural midfielders, though Mason Mount could realistically drop into a deeper role or Reece James could possibly come infield. Loftus-Cheek himself has been used more as a makeshift wing-back than a midfielder so far this season but has impressed, playing a key role next to his Italian teammate to secure the victory against Leicester at the weekend.
This doesn't leave much scope for flexibility, and as Tuchel said in his press-conference. "It is, and it's normally the area I would love to have a headache about who plays and who is on the bench. This is normally the area where I thought we would have five players that could all play for us and have Carney [Chukwuemeka] on top as an option as a young player.
"The headache before the season was whether we had too many players there, but it comes to the fifth game, and maybe we only have two left with experience in this position and Kova from the bench because he is not ready to play full matches at Premier League level as he only had a week after training after his injury.
"It's a strange situation and a situation we don't like. I don't know why we are in this situation, actually. It's like this, and we will have something to think about [over the team selection], or maybe not because it's so obvious who we have left."
There have been some shouts for Tuchel's options including Ethan Ampadu - tough he is close to another move away - Trevoh Chalobah or Billy Gilmour. Chalobah has once again had to prove himself to Tuchel from the wilderness, being a last gasp call to start against Leicester despite it appearing that his future had lay elsewhere. Gilmour hasn't been afforded that luxury.
The 21-year-old played a tiny part in pre-season before being moved away from the main squad to the development side and wasn't given a squad number, the largest indicator that Tuchel felt no need for him. That has all changed now.
On the Premier League website Gilmour has now been assigned the No.35 shirt whereas he previously didn't have one. This might be purely for a safety point-of-view as Tuchel needs extra options, especially with five substitutes available to him, or it could be a turning of the tide.
The player has also trained with the first team and unless anything drastic changes, Chelsea won't be bringing in a new midfielder before the end of the transfer window. This does leave a small gap open to Gilmour. Carney Chukwuemeka is expected to stay and fight for small chunks of minutes off the bench or from cup matches, which is already what Gilmour would be competing for, and Cesare Casadei hasn't been given a number and will likely need to stay with the development team for a period before being looked at by Tuchel.
In this sense, Gilmour is effectively sixth choice, not a great prospect for a Scotland international looking to get into his country's World Cup squad or build-up form ahead of the tournament - but it wouldn't be a complete surprise if he was chucked in against Southampton in some capacity. Although receiving a shirt number might not be with this game in mind, especially considering Michy Batshuayi and Kenedy also have one, it is a boost for Gilmour.
Tuchel has previously trusted Gilmour, allowing him to anchor the midfield against Manchester City, and knows the player's talent well. His loan spell at Norwich didn't go to plan but the Scot is certainly good enough to prove a point if offered it against Southampton. It might be his last chance this window too, Brighton, who reportedly hold interest in him, can't have another Chelsea player on loan and the Blues are reluctant to sell Gilmour.
This means that he may well be in limbo over being an outside first team player or in the development squad. If that is going to change then he will need some luck to get on the pitch against Southampton and then express his pitch for why he needs a bigger role. Gilmour does arguably fit the double-six role much better than Gallagher, but earning that chance to prove it has been spectacularly hard.
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