‘Not Bukayo Saka’: I fear…He is a nightmare to every Defender, Chelsea Manager Mauricio Pochettino makes honest premier league admission ahead of their clash with Arsenal
Mauricio Pochettino has rarely made changes to his Chelsea side when it hasn’t been forced. His approach to team selection is about as far from Graham Potter’s consistent rotation as it comes.
For many it has been a cause for frustration during his first two months back in the Premier League and for a large part they would have been supported with this notion. The consistent choice to stick with Ben Chilwell as a make-shift left-winger puzzled some and the results didn’t reward the manager for his choices.
What must be said is since that change, partially down to fitness but also growing trust in Mykhailo Mudryk, Chelsea have been a lot more positive. The underlying stats have hardly changed, a credit to the way that Pochettino’s side were playing without scoring, but the points and goals have added gloss to the situation in recent weeks.
When it comes to playing against Arsenal, though, Pochettino will have a lot to balance. As well as figuring out which striker he goes with from the off – it has been Armando Broja for the past two games but he is still far from fully fit – there are choices to be made on the wings. Cole Palmer surely cannot be dropped and if he is fit must start but then again that leaves Raheem Sterling and Mykhailo Mudryk to go into one spot on the left.
The other way to ease this is to take out a midfielder but against Arsenal that doesn’t feel wise and nor is it deserved for three players that have been the engine room for success in the past three games. It feels that in the week leading up to this game it will be Mudryk that is left out, especially with his fitness concern and Sterling remaining at Cobham during the break.
However, for the first time this season, Pochettino has a big call to make a right-back and that is the real talking point. Having started the season with a clear pecking order that was realistically just two options long, Pochettino has a list three-strong to go with this time.
Reece James, who hasn’t played since the first game of the season at home to Liverpool, is finally close to a return. The Athletic report that he will be available for selection once more but football.london understands there is some caution over making a decision too soon with his fitness being monitored closely throughout the week.
As the club captain and almost certainly one of the most important and best players in the team, logic dictates that for the visit of Arsenal and some of the trickiest attackers in the league, he is brought back. With two extra weeks over the international break to recover and the thought that he may have been able to get some minutes against Burnley last time out, James is in contention again.
The issue for him is not only sharpness, something that even James can lack after over two months out of the side, but also the constant worry that his body will break down again. The last time James was out for an extended period he came back in pre-season but then suffered this setback at the start of the campaign.
Before that he was out for two months over the winter of 2022 and injured his hamstring after less than an hour upon his rushed return. The same cannot happen again for Chelsea if they want to ensure that their leader remains part of the team for longer than a few games.
Luckily, and really for the first time since he broke through in 2019, Chelsea have at least one layer of depth for James. At that time it was an ageing Cesar Azpilicueta, not someone who could match James on the ball, off the ball or physically but that would be a useful rotational and senior figure.
Now, after being without James for too much of the past three years, Chelsea have someone to not just carry the drinks and play Caddy but also to genuinely compete. The January signing of Malo Gusto might just be one of the most important since Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital took over in May 2022.
Gusto himself is seen as a first team standard option on the right and it’s something he has lived up to the hype with. The 20-year-old had been extremely impressive in his first games in England before a three-match suspension for a harsh red card against Aston Villa put the brakes on his season.
In his opening appearances he has already put in notable performances one-on-one with Kaoru Mitoma and Jarrod Bowen as well as providing attacking impetus at the other end. Padawan turned Jedi, James is now the senior player in this area of the pitch and has a more than capable understudy.
The issue for Gusto ahead of Arsenal is that he has also been out of the side in recent weeks. His suspension marked the start of a domestic change in fortunes for Chelsea and they have now won three on the spin without him. Gusto, though, is in a better shape to respond to Pochettino’s call having actually had meaningful gametime this campaign, not something his 23-year-old teammate can match.
What the most unexpected thing to happen in the first eight games is, we don’t know, but Marc Cucurella entering the conversation as a legitimate option at this stage is right up there. The Spanish left-back has channelled his inner Azpilcueta to slot in out of position in the absence of James and Gusto.
Cucurella has played four for Chelsea in all competitions and won all four this season. The sample size is tiny and not every swan is white just because there’s a lot of white swans, but Chelsea fans might have feared the worst when Cucurella was seen lining up on the right.
Given that he has also come from absolutely nowhere in the squad – he hadn’t played a single minute in the league before the 2-0 win over Fulham brought about a surprise start – this is worth a debate. Cucurella is currently off the back of the best form of the three options, he has shown how effective and tenacious he can be – nobody averages more tackles or interceptions per90 in the squad – and has also been at Cobham during the break, working closely with Pochettino.
