Cole Palmer has been left out of the Chelsea team to face Arsenal on Sunday. He played the second half of Thursday night’s Conference League last-16 second leg against FC Copenhagen.
The attacker suffered from illness last week in the narrow 1-0 win over Leicester City with Enzo Maresca revealing that he had diarrhoea. Palmer also did not train until the day before facing Copenhagen.
Palmer has an injury, Maresca has now confirmed. The head coach is hopeful of having his star player back after the international break. “He had an injury yesterday during the session,” Maresca said. “It was a very light session and that’s why we think it’s nothing important.”
Palmer missed this fixture last season with illness. Mauricio Pochettino had called for his team to prove that they are not ‘Cole Palmer FC.’ Chelsea went on to lose 5-0 in a humiliation.
Chelsea will be looking to Pedro Neto, Jadon Sancho, and Christopher Nkunku to act as the replacement for Palmer. They start in attack whilst James looks likely to occupy a spot in midfield with Wesley Fofana at right-back.
Palmer is currently on a 10-game run without a goal and it is 17 since his last assist. He was brought on at half-time against Copenhagen in order to give the team a much-needed boost following a drab first 45.
On Friday, Palmer was named in Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad for World Cup qualifiers against Latvia and Albania. His participation in those games is now in doubt.
This will be only the second match Palmer has not played in for Chelsea in over three months. He was left on the bench for January’s FA Cup third round win over League Two outfit Morecambe.
Speaking last week about Palmer, Maresca said: “Cole, Reece [James] and Christo today has been the first session. Yesterday they were not here and two days ago they had a rest. The reason why is because all of them had some problems but today, they were all back and they were all better.”
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