Jase

Chelsea will be without summer signings Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell for the opening game of the Premier League season against Brighton on Monday night, reports Simon Johnson. The Athletic understands that both men have already been ruled out with injury, but Chelsea have been boosted by the news that Christian Pulisic is in contention to feature. How did Ziyech and Chilwell get injured? Ziyech twisted his knee during Chelsea’s pre-season friendly against Brighton 11 days ago, which forced him to come off in the 54th minute of his first appearance for the club. Coach Frank Lampard admitted afterwards that the Morocco international needed to be assessed, but there has been no update until now. As for Chilwell, he hasn’t had any match action since going off at half-time in Leicester’s 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace on July 4. Chelsea’s new £50 million left-back suffered an injury to his heel and has been working his way back to fitness ever since. How long are Ziyech and Chilwell going to be out? As things stand, it could now take a few weeks for Ziyech to make his competitive debut. Chilwell admitted recently that his heel was ‘healing well’ and he was ‘feeling really good’ but it is believed it will take a couple more weeks for him to be ready too. Could Pulisic make a return? It is definitely a possibility and I’m sure Chelsea fans will be glad to hear it. The prospect of Pulisic being available for selection for the opening game didn’t seem likely when he sustained a bad hamstring injury during the FA Cup final loss to Arsenal last month. However, the USA international has made a quicker recovery than expected and is in line to resume training on Wednesday. Should there be no complications during the build-up, there is hope he could feature. When will Silva start training? Former Paris Saint-Germain captain Thiago Silva has arrived in London to start his Chelsea career after taking a holiday in Sardinia, having played in the Champions League final just over two weeks ago. Naturally, he will have to be tested for COVID-19 first before joining the group but should results be clear, he will take his first session with the group on Thursday. How has Havertz settled in at the club? Chelsea’s expensive recruit from Bayer Leverkusen hasn’t had many first-team players to work with since completing his lucrative move last Friday, due to so many being away on international duty and others in self-isolation. Yet, The Athletic has learned that Havertz has made a very positive impact in the drills that have been taking place and already looks very settled in his new environment. Such is his progress, he is expected to make his debut against Brighton. Any other news? Cesar Azpilicueta and Reece James should be fine to start the campaign after recovering from some minor knocks.

All that panicking from some people here in January is still funny.

That's because Dortmund have a style of play and know how to implement it. Southgate doesn't have one and is clueless.

Could be for rotation. It's gonna be a congested season and if we can alleviate the workload on Kante and protect his dodgy hamstring, then why not? City also have expensive options sitting on the bench every week and their greater depth is arguably the main reason why they have dominated domestically over the last few years. If we sell Kante and buy Rice, we'll just end up with the same problem we had last season - only one defensive midfielder. Plus, let's not forget that Rice is only 21 years old. He's still young and by no means the finished article yet. Selling Kante and the wealth of experience he's got doesn't seem like the brightest of ideas right now when our squad just got even younger this season.

I know you've talked about selling Kante and all that but think Lampard wants another DM as an option, a back up (whatever you want to call it). Because when Kante was injured last season, we practically had no defensive minded midfielder to cover for him and had to play someone like Jorginho or change our formation to a back 3 to shore up the defensive shortcomings in midfield. If we want our creative, attacking players to shine, then we definitely need another fella to help do the dirty work to let the those other players shine.

They already did. It was supposed to come into play this season but the pandemic happened and it was moved to next year. https://www.transfermarkt.com/new-rules-fifa-put-cap-on-loan-deals-limit-to-go-down-further-in-2022/view/news/355880 https://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-fifa/story/4062188/fifa-set-to-limit-number-of-international-loans-clubs-can-make

Game now starts at 8:15pm, instead of 8pm next Monday. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/09/07/brighton-kick-off-time-amendment-?cardIndex=0-0

Raphael Honigstein on Havertz... https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/09/08/honigstein-on-havertz--what-drew-him-to-chelsea--why-his-versati

Any links to share? Pretty sure Football London only report what other papers are saying rather than having their own inside sources. Haven't seen any of the reliable Chelsea sources say that Lampard, the club etc want Kante off. Not even Romano himself has reported anything on this.

Credible reports like...? A lot of the noise are coming from Italy (surprise surprise) and from what I've seen in the English media, there has been next to nothing about us willing to sell Kante from Matt Law, The Athletic, Guardian etc. Only Goal seemed to suggest that a sale could be possible IF Inter offer a large amount of money - https://www.goal.com/en/news/kante-hopes-to-remain-at-chelsea-despite-inters-growing-transfer-/1w1w5rubke2741ha39rj82hudm - but they also mentioned that Lampard has not indicated anything about selling Kante. And then there is also this from France...

Oh? Thought you weren't convinced about Mendy?

Chris Wilder on Ampadu...

The accumulation of yellow card is competition specific but not if you get sent off via two yellows or straight red. A red card suspension applies to all domestic competitions.

Loan to Sheffield United confirmed. Apparently, they had wanted him last summer.

Mbappe tested positive for COVID-19 and has been withdrawn from the France squad. Not sure if others are infected and/or need to be quarantined.

Mbappe tested positive for COVID-19 and has been withdrawn from the France squad. Not sure if others are infected and/or need to be quarantined.

Matt Law on the Mendy pursuit... https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2020/09/07/chelsea-aiming-complete-goalkeeper-edouard-mendy-signing/

Pretty sure Kova is suspended for prem games as it's just domestic not specific to the fa cup Just had a look again and think you're right..

Some bits on the transfer update: - Talks are progressing well. An offer worth 14 million pounds was rejected by Rennes but negotiations are ongoing and an agreement should be reached. - Mendy expected to arrive "within days or the next few weeks". (LOL!) - Club have considered a number of options including Oblak, Onana and Pope but Mendy is seen as the best option right now. - Mendy will be brought in to compete with Kepa, who looks likely to remain because there is little interest from elsewhere. - Club could also buy a defensive midfielder. Rice remains on the wishlist, although he was originally lined up for his ability to play at the back as well as in the centre. Club also monitored Lille's Soumare last season.

Idiots...