Chelsea face West Brom on Sunday in the Premier League. The Blues know that they need to win or at least draw if they want to finish the weekend as sole leaders ahead of Arsenal who joined Chelsea at the top after beating Stoke City 3-1 today. The good news is that Man City dropped 3 points away to reigning Champs Leicester City going down to a 4-2 thumping. So City will not gain any ground on Chelsea no matter what the result is at Stamford Bridge tomorrow.
During last week’s impressive come from behind win over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side, Chelsea were forced to withdraw two of their Spanish players as Pedro suffered a heel injury as result of Sergio Aguero’s first nasty challenge of the day for which he received a booking. The other Spaniard to be subbed was Diego Costa who went off late on with a muscle strain after leading the Blues’ comeback with his 11th League goal of the season. The good news for Antonio Conte is that both players have been passed fit to play against the Baggies.
Following Sergio Aguero’s horror tackle on David Luiz at the end of the City game it certainly looked at though the Brazilian centre-half could be sidelined for a while. The great news is that Luiz is expected to also be passed fit for the West Brom match as he faces a late fitness test on his knee injury. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for compatriot Oscar who will definitely miss the match due to illness. Also missing the game will be club captain John Terry who is still recovering from his buttock injury and the Chelsea stalwart is due to be out for another week at least.
Fortunately the injury count will be reduced by one more man as midfielder Nemanja Matic will also be returning to the match day squad as he has recovered from his muscle injury which forced him to miss last week’s win over Man City. So Antonio Conte has a relatively fit squad to choose from for the visit of Tony Pulis’ West Bromwich Albion and the Chelsea manager will know that he is doing quite well to only have 2 injuries affecting his squad at this stage of the season. Hopefully Chelsea get through Sunday’s game without suffering anymore injuries as with the busy festive schedule the Blues will need all of their options to maintain their position at the top of the table.