Two Chelsea players are major doubts for Tuesday’s game after Mauricio Pochettino comments | OneFootball

Chelsea made it to the end of today’s game in one piece, but it was a close run thing. Considering Man City were the team that played to extra time on Wednesday, it was a surprise that the Blues were looking just as shot by the end of 90 minutes today.

Cole Palmer started the game with strapping, and in the early stages looked to have hurt himself overextending making a tackle on John Stones. He was able to play on but looked totally broken by full time. He certainly wasn’t playing at full power for most of the second half either.

But after the game, Mauricio Pochettino explained that there was no specific injury issue, just fatigue.

“It’s normal. He’s tired. But I don’t believe he has a problem. We need to check tomorrow but I hope there’s nothing more wrong than him being tired,” the coach explained in the presser after the match.

Looking forward

That’s the best news we could have hoped to get from such a gutting day like today. It was also great to see Malo Gusto stand up and continue playing after his injury scare too.

Both have been pushed to the limit by the number of minutes played, and with Arsenal coming up on Tuesday there are big questions about whether either will be able to start that game.

Now we’re out of all the cups, it should feel like a relaxed pace until the end of the season, but instead we’ve got games to make up, and our squad will be continued to be stretched to its limits until the last couple of weeks.

So even though Pochettino’s comments were positive in terms of saying that Palmer wasn’t injured, the overall picture puts major doubt on the idea that he or Gusto will be ready to start on Tuesday. After that, it’s Aston Villa on Saturday, each one as vital as the last for our European hopes.