Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has revealed that N’Golo Kante was not in the matchday squad against Arsenal last night due to an Achilles injury.

The Frenchman’s omission was a shock as he played the first 70 minutes against Manchester City last weekend but Tuchel claims that there was no possibility of him playing yesterday evening:

“N’Golo [missed the game] because of pain management. He has pain in his Achilles and he suffers from that. So there was no chance. We missed [Mateo] Kovacic and now we didn’t have N’Golo on the bench and that was a huge blow for us in terms of intensity and attitude.”

With just two days to go before the FA Cup final, it appears Kante is in a race against time to be ready for the showpiece event at Wembley.

As Tuchel also points out, Mateo Kovacic’s fitness is a major concern, and although the German did say last week that he was confident that the Croatian international would be back for the final, he rowed back on those comments ahead of the Gunners match.

It is clear that Tuchel was unhappy with both Jorginho and Billy Gilmour playing in the same midfield last night, and if Kante and Kovacic are not able to make the Leicester clash, he will have a dilemma on his hands.