Thomas Tuchel will be wary of the two finals ahead and will be looking to rotate the players in order to keep them fresh for the finals.
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Chelsea take on Arsenal at Stamford bridge on Wednesday, in a bid to move closer to Champions League qualification. Chelsea are having a stellar season since Thomas Tuchel tooke charge in January following the sacking of Frank Lampard. The Blues reached the final of Champions League and the FA Cup. They are also very much in contention for a top four finish in the Premier League. On May 15th Chelsea will take on Leicester City at the Wembley stadium in the FA Cup final.
The Blues cannot put their legs off the pedal yet, however. They are still not fully sure of a Champions League spot. They have a six point lead over fifth placed West Ham United with three games remaining. Leicester moved above them to third place with a victory against Manchester United on Tuesday. In the next two weeks they could win as much as two titles or may be nothing. Tuchel will be wary of giving rest to some of his regulars, keeping an eye on the two finals ahead.
The German coach has some injury problems to deal with, as centre-back Andreas Christensen and defensive midfielder Mateo Kovacic have been ruled out for the Arsenal game.
“Kova isn’t ready for tomorrow. The personal race is on to try to make it to Wembley,” Tuchel said.
“Andreas’ was better than we feared. We hope he’ll be back for one of the two Leicester games. It will be a tough one but the season isn’t finished for him hopefully.
“We were a bit relieved yesterday when the images were given and they what weren’t we expected. We have realistic hopes the season isn’t finished and that’s very important.’
Rotation of players is going to be key in the last few weeks to get the regulars ready and fresh for the finals.
“We have an eye on the players workload and the statistics we have, who is overloaded and from that we will decide who has a risk of injury,” he added.
“Everyone who isn’t a risk will be available for the game. It’s not to manage the game on Saturday as we are in the middle of a race. It’s not the time to judge games.”
“Billy Gilmour has had to step up because we play with a double six.
“We were rotating between N’Golo, Jorgi and Kova but once we missed Kova for some weeks it was time for Billy to step up and I was pleased he could when needed.”
A Victory on Wednesday will take the Blues to 67 points and back to third spot above Leicester, whom they will play twice in the space of four days in the coming days.
Arsenal on the other hand lost their Europa League semifinals to Villarreal and are 9th in the points table with 52 points from 35 games. Mikel Arteta’s side won’t be playing in Europe next season. They are coming into the match on the back of two convincing victories against Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion in their previous league games.
