Chelsea are back in training this week after the first team players were given some time off for holidays, relaxing, time with family, or however they wanted to use it.
There will be an in-house game at Cobham, before the boys fly out to Abu Dhabi for the friendly match against Aston Villa on Sunday 11th December with kick-off at 6.10pm local time (2.10pm UK time).
Obviously we will not have Chelsea’s World Cup players in attendance, but there will be all the players who have not gone to the World Cup, as well as a chunk of academy players to fill the spaces, and our recovering injured players as well.
Players like Trevoh Chalobah, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Armando Broja, Marc Cucurella, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Kepa Arrizabalaga, and Jorginho will all be back training this week ahead of the trip. They could all use some friendly games to help get back in some good from.
They are expected to be joined still by Lewis Hall, Carney Chukwuemeka, and Omari Hutchinson, who also had time off with the first team.
It will be a great opportunity for these lads to earn some game time and prove a point, as they will certainly be used in the Villa game. We could see further academy lads join the squad as well.
I think the likes of Hall and co will really take this opportunity to step up and really give Graham Potter something to think about for the rest of the season, with many of these lads able to bring something fresh and different to the team, and many of them already proving they are good enough to be in Chelsea’s senior team right now.
This presents the perfect chance to stake claims for all of these players now.