Chelsea may still have another day to wait before they return to the hallowed turf at Stamford Bridge but by this stage Graham Potter will likely have a team in mind. The Blues boss has had a number of weeks to work with some of his squad, although the group has changed over time as Chelsea welcomed back their World Cup Stars.
Mateo Kovacic and Hakim Ziyech are already out of contention having not trained in the build up to the game with their international commitments ending just over one week ago as Croatia and Morocco faced off in a play-off for third place. In addition, Potter is still without a number of injured players, perhaps most frustratingly Armando Broja, who was ruled out for the season after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in a friendly against Aston Villa, and Wesley Fofana who suffered a setback in a behind-closed-doors friendly versus Brentford.
Potter outlined the issues remaining, and confirmed that Reece James managed to complete 65 minutes against the Bees. He said: "Wesley [Fofana] just had a little setback which can sometimes happen at the very last stage of the rehab. It will be a couple of weeks so he won't be available for the game. Obviously, Armando [Broja] is a big loss in terms of the time he is out. Reece [James] is back in and completed 65 minutes in the week, still without Ruben [Loftus-Cheek], still without Ben Chilwell, obviously [N'Golo] Kante. [Edouard] Mendy has had a couple of days training with us."
