Chelsea vs Wolves lineups
With the fixtures coming thick and fast, the head coach has shuffled his pack in defence, midfield and attack.
Cesar Azpilicueta, Trevoh Chalobah and Marc Cucurella join Kalidou Koulibaly in what looks like a back four.
Jorginho replaces Mateo Kovacic and Conor Gallagher is another fresh face in that part of the pitch. Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic are the other incomers, with Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Kepa the other three players to keep their place from the win over AC Milan.
Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Raheem Sterling and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang are all on the bench.
Diego Costa starts for Wolves.
Chelsea:Â Kepa; Azpilicueta (c), Chalobah, Koulibaly, Cucurella, Jorginho, Loftus-Cheek, Gallagher, Mount, Havertz, Pulisic.
Subs:Â Mendy, James, Chilwell, Chukwuemeka, Kovacic, Sterling, Ziyech, Aubameyang, Broja
Wolves:Â Sa; Jonny, Toti, Kilman; Semedo, Moutinho, Nunes, Traore, Podence, Diego Costa, Guedes.
Subs:Â Sarkic, Ait-Nouri, Hwang, Mosquera, Ronan, Hodge, Bueno, Campbell.
The referee is Simon Hooper.
Chelsea vs Wolves injury updates
Wesley Fofana limped off during the first half of our win against AC Milan, and Graham Potter had this to say about the defender in his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Wolves.
‘Wesley’s knee’s not as bad as we thought after the game, so that’s good because it was a cause for concern at the time, but it will still be a few weeks I think. It’s considerably better than it could be, but he will obviously be missing for a few weeks,’ he explained.
‘It’s just a knee strain so there’s a possibility we might see him play against before the World Cup. It depends on how his rehab goes, I don’t want to put too much of a timescale on it, but there’s a chance of that.’
N’Golo Kante was not in the matchday squad either, and Potter spoke about the Frenchman and the need to be patient over his return on Friday.
‘He’s doing more and more integration with the team. He’s still not ready for the weekend but getting closer.
‘It is what it is, there’s nothing we can do, the injury happened and now it’s about trying to get him back fit and getting him as ready as we can so he can play for a sustained period.
‘He’s been in and out with injuries over a period of time so we have to make sure that when he’s back he’s back for good and strong and enjoying his football. So there’s no frustration from my perspective, it’s just something we have to deal with.’
Chelsea vs Wolves press conference
Graham Potter revealed that he is pleased with the progress his team has made during his first month as Chelsea head coach, but is still just taking things game by game and not looking too far ahead during this busy spell until the World Cup.
‘I think we’ve made a little bit of progress in terms of my first day to now, as you would expect and hope. But there’s a long way to go and I think the thing is we have to just focus on the next match. It’s as simple as that.
‘We’ve got this incredible amount of games to play, so rather than think too much about what will happen at the end of the season we’ll just focus on the next game.’
(CHELSEA)
