One player who will be 'a lot fresher' in crucial block of games according to top writer

Matt Law was on the London is Blue podcast talking about the squad, and he pointed to the players who had got a rest as well as those recovering from injury:

“You’d hope that Joao Pedro would look a lot fresher in this block of games,” Law said.

“Because they’d won two games it felt annoying that Chelsea had to stop now. In actual fact I think it was the best thing for them still. Because they won those games, finished on a positive.

“Then they’ve had a lot of players either stay back from international duty or come back early, to help with them coming into this set of games.  I think this break should have really helped them actually.”

It’s just like we wrote before the break – it’s been the best international break ever in some ways. The fact that more injuries have crept in during this period has taken the shine off a little, but we should be in better shape now than we were two weeks, ago, as Law says.

You can see them discussing the subject in the clip embedded here, after 12 minutes:

In other news…

The big news from Enzo Maresca in the press conference today was that Cole Palmer is set to miss six more weeks with his ongoing groin injury. That’s devastating news, and we’re all excited and interested to see how the coach puts things together in his absence.

That’s all the more reason to hope that Joao Pedro’s rest will get him back to his best form again.