Chelsea’s bid to end a four-game Premier League losing run away at Brighton became more complicated after Cole Palmer was left out of the matchday squad. Manager Liam Rosenior confirmed the reason as “some tightness in his hamstring.” Palmer has struggled with injuries this season but had started the last 10 straight games and had recently seemed to turn a corner.<\/p>\n
With Jo\u00e3o Pedro still nursing a thigh issue, Chelsea will take the pitch at Amex Stadium without two of their most dangerous attackers. Desperately needing a win to course correct in the Champions League qualification race, the team faces a significant selection challenge.<\/p>\n
Starting XI (3-4-1-2): Robert S\u00e1nchez; Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Jorrel Hato; Malo Gusto, Mois\u00e9s Caicedo, Rom\u00e9o Lavia, Marc Cucurella; Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez; Pedro Neto, Liam Delap.<\/p>\n
Substitutes: Teddy Sharman-Lowe (GK), Josh Acheampong, Tosin Adarabioyo, Mamadou Sarr, Andrey Santos, D\u00e1rio Essugo, Jesse Drry, Alejandro Garnacho, Marc Guiu.<\/p>\n
Rosenior has elected to include Rom\u00e9o Lavia in the XI to partner Mois\u00e9s Caicedo in the base of midfield, allowing Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez to slide forward and operate in the No. 10 role, replacing the injured Palmer. “Having just returned from an internal suspension, the Argentine was one of the few bright spots of last weekend\u2019s defeat.” Trevoh Chalobah has been included and will make his first start since suffering an injury against Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16.<\/p>\n
The manager’s switch to a 3-4-1-2 appears aimed at prioritizing defensive security in light of the attacking absences. Liam Delap and Pedro Neto will be the most advanced players as Chelsea attempt to arrest their poor run in front of goal. Palmer missing the clash against Brighton is a blow, and there is also uncertainty over his availability for Chelsea’s FA Cup semifinal against Leeds United on Sunday. “He’s out for this game, and we’ll see how he moves on for the FA Cup semifinal,” Rosenior told reporters ahead of kick-off vs. Brighton.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Palmer misses Brighton trip with hamstring tightness; Chelsea also without Jo\u00e3o Pedro for the match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12551,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[773,190,172],"tags":[1305,1304,1047],"class_list":["post-12552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}