Enzo Maresca all but confirms surprise starter vs Astana tomorrow night | OneFootball

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has all but confirmed one surprise starter for Chelsea in tomorrow’s game against Astana in the Conference League.

The Blues make the 7,000 mile round trip to play in Kazakhstan for their next European clash, although it seems absurd that they have to travel so far to play a European game!

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It is what it is though, and Maresca has been speaking to the media ahead of the game this morning, and he has pretty much confirmed that one surprise player will be starting the game.

Young defender Josh Acheampong is a highly rated player within the academy, but there has been a problem with his contract. Chelsea froze him out recently and have not let him play any games and rarely even train until he signs a new contract at the club. It looks like the harsh treatment could be working, because not only has he been spotted in training again recently, Acheampong is set to start tomorrow night.

New contract must be close

Acheampong is highly rated

Maresca has actually now confirmed that a new deal for Acheampong is now very close, and I guess that is also confirmed by the fact that he is set to start a game for Chelsea this week.

Maresca said on Acheampong

“He will probably play from the start [vs Astana]. We all love Josh. The club love Josh, I love Josh. We are trying to sort an agreement, we are almost there.”

That is fantastic news all around really and what we as fans all wanted to hear. Acheampong is going to play again and is also now very close to signing a new contract extension at the club.

A lot of people rave about how good this guy is, so this is a huge positive.