helsea face one other anxious wait to find the extent of Denis Zakaria’s damage following the Premier League encounter with Fulham.
An more and more wretched season spiralled additional uncontrolled for the Blues at Craven Cottage on Thursday evening, with a 2-1 defeat sealed by Carlos Vinicius’ header making it only one win within the final 9 video games both aspect of the World Cup break, heaping but extra stress on under-fire supervisor Graham Potter together with his aspect sitting tenth within the desk and 10 factors adrift of the highest 4.
Chelsea’s dramatic droop has coincided with an ever-worsening damage disaster, with the guests lacking 9 gamers in whole for the all-capital contest in SW6, with Edouard Mendy, Ben Chilwell, Wesley Fofana, Reece James, N’Golo Kante, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Raheem Sterling, Christian Pulisic and Armando Broja all sidelined.
Such a dire state of affairs solely deteriorated additional on one other depressing night for Potter on Thursday, with Zakaria limping off early within the second half at Craven Cottage and changed by Jorginho in yet one more blow.
The Swiss worldwide midfielder needed to wait months for his Chelsea debut after becoming a member of on mortgage from Juventus on deadline day in the summertime switch window, however has shortly grown in affect with a sequence of spectacular shows and Potter will detest to be with out one other good participant for any appreciable time frame.
Disaster deepens: Chelsea midfielder Denis Zakaria limped out of the 2-1 defeat by Fulham
/ Getty PhotosRequested for an replace on Zakaria after one other defeat, a downbeat Potter stated: “The only assessment is it’s at the top of the quad.
“He felt it when he cleared the ball. In terms of the extent, it’s too early to say.”
Chelsea’s availability disaster bought worse nonetheless in opposition to Fulham, with new mortgage signing Joao Felix inexplicably despatched off on his debut for a woeful excessive problem on Kenny Tete that deservedly earned him a straight pink card from referee David Coote mere minutes after Zakaria’s withdrawal.
After an initially thrilling show, the Portuguese ahead will now miss the go to of Crystal Palace to Stamford Bridge on Sunday in addition to the journey to Liverpool on January 21 and a second assembly with Fulham on February 3.
He can be eligible to return for an additional London derby in opposition to West Ham on February 11, with Chelsea then going through Borussia Dortmund within the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie in Germany.
“It was a forward’s tackle, there was no malice in it but I understand why it was a red,” Potter stated on the dismissal of Felix. “It is another blow, the hits keep coming at the moment.
“He was really good, you could see his quality in the game so it is doubly disappointing for us.”
