Chelsea players were left “shocked” to discover they had not even made the substitutes’ bench for the Blues’ trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last Sunday. Graham Potter’s side slumped to a third straight defeat in north London, courtesy of goals from Oliver Skipp and Harry Kane, which left the Blues closer to the relegation zone than to the Champions League places.
During this wretched run, which has seen just one win and four goals from 11 matches in 2023, Potter’s selection choices have frequently been called into question. His task was not made any easier following another splurge in the transfer window during January, when eight players were brought in accumulating £320million.
Potter now has a squad containing more than 30 players at his disposal. With only 20 spots available in the matchday squad, despite the substitute allocation recently being extended to nine, this means several players are going to be regularly disappointed to be given a watching brief.
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Due to the nature of Chelsea’s now-bloated squad, the ex-Brighton boss was forced to leave several senior first-team hopefuls out of the fold altogether. This included Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella, Carney Chukwuemeka and David Datro Fofana, all of which Potter said were "unfortunate" to be left out.
More than one of those players was “shocked” to find out they would not even be on the substitutes' bench, as reported by the Telegraph. Potter’s selection headache will likely only rub further players up the wrong way as the season continues, with even more big-name stars at risk of falling down the vast pecking order.
Striker Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang has been another to be snubbed completely in recent weeks, having been omitted from the squads to face Fulham, West Ham and Southampton, despite the Blues’ ongoing goalscoring issue.
Despite an apparent need for the squad to be trimmed, only Jorginho was allowed to leave the club in January. Hakim Ziyech was another to almost depart Stamford Bridge, before his proposed loan move to PSG collapsed following a series of administration errors on Chelsea’s side.
Despite this, Ziyech actually started in the defeat to Spurs, in place of several new signings. Meanwhile, Potter could be in for an even bigger decision when a handful of his unavailable crew return to action.
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