Brentford v Chelsea: Enzo Maresca could be without six big stars for this weekend's Premier League clash
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca could be without six of his best players for Saturday’s trip to Brentford.
The Blues’ three Brazilians – Joao Pedro, Estevao and Andrey Santos – arrived back in England on Thursday after playing in their country’s 1-0 defeat to Bolivia, whilst Moises Caicedo returned late on Thursday night following Ecuador’s victory over Argentina.
Having played so recently, and travelled so far to get back to Stamford Bridge, all four players could be excluded from this weekend’s Premier League clash by Maresca.
“The three Brazilian players arrived yesterday, they didn’t train, they did some recovery sessions,” said Maresca. “Moises arrived last night. They’re all a question mark for tomorrow.”
Enzo Fernandez was suspended for Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers and remained at the club’s Cobham training base. Both the world champions and Brazil had already secured their place at next summer’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico prior to the latest round of fixtures.
The Italian also confirmed that striker Liam Delap is likely to be out for up to 12 weeks following the hamstring injury he sustained before the international break.
The 22-year-old went off in the first half of Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Fulham with his return date now pushed back beyond the initial forecast of six to eight weeks, possibly as far as December.
Maresca said: “Liam is around 10, 12 weeks - a long way to go.
“The injury means we only have [Marc] Guiu as a nine. Joao also can play there, against Fulham we used Ty [Tyrique George] as a nine, we can think about him also.”
Cole Palmer was due to be assessed on Friday for the trip to Brentford having not played since the opening-weekend draw with Crystal Palace.
He was not included in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for last week’s games against Andorra and Serbia.
“Cole took part (Thursday) for the first time, not the entire session,” Maresca added. “We’ll see if he’s okay, otherwise tomorrow he’ll be out again.
“He was injured, he’s recovering. We’re not managing him, he’s just recovering.”