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Chelsea make three changes from the midweek game in Romania against Atletico Madrid  There are returns for Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech and N'Golo Kante to Thomas Tuchel's side as Chelsea welcome Manchester United to Stamford Bridge for this afternoons game. The trio to miss out are Marcos Alonso, Jorginho and Timo Werner who all drop to the bench. This means the Olivier Giroud will lead the line up front following his brilliant performance in Romania on Tuesday, with the attacking support being provided by both Mason Mount and Hakim Ziyech. The goalkeeper and the back three remain unchanged with Edouard Mendy protected at the back by Cesar Azpiliqueta, Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger. The wing-backs will be Ben Chilwell and Callum-Hudson-Odoi, with Matteo Kovacic partnered by Kante in the centre of midfield. When asked about his decision to select Ziyech over Werner, Tuchel said: 'For me Hakim is a different type of player. He deserves to start. His impact in the gam...

The matches in February reach their end with Chelsea hosting one of the biggest matches of the season  today. This top five super Sunday showdown matches Chelsea with Manchester United on the back of mid-week nights against Spanish teams in Europe. Chelsea inflicted the first ever home defeat in the knockout stages of the Champions League on Diego Simeone's Atletico Madrid, whilst Manchester United completed eliminating Real Sociedad from the Round of 32 in the Europa League with a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford.  After the biggest win of his Chelsea career to date, Thomas Tuchel will have to navigate Chelsea through their most testing period of the season. Sadly we now know that crowds will not be back at stadiums until at least mid-May. This game would have been a fine fare had fans been present at Stamford Bridge, with games against second placed Manchester United, champions Liverpool and Carlo Ancelotti's Everton in the league, plus two cup fixtures which are decisive, all due t...

The great news for Thomas Tuchel is that his squad returned from Bucharest in good health, with all those having made the trip to Romania available to face Manchester United today. However, Tuchel confirmed in his pre-match media conference that Thiago Silva will not be in contention to face Manchester United as he continues to recover from a muscle injury which he sustained at Tottenham last month.   Tuchel reported ' He carried out an individual training session today, on the pitch, and felt this was huge progress.' 'This is a big step for him, so I am hoping that he will join us next week.' Tuchel has already faced Manchester United twice this season with PSG in the champions league group stage  'It is very helpful if you understand the style, strength and weakness. We have had a pretty good impression of the style they play and the spaces in which they want to hurt us, alongside their strengths individually as a group. This will help us to prepare.' 'The...

 Chelsea are in Bucharest but not to face Romanian opposition  Both Chelsea and Atletico Madrid dropped points domestically ahead of this big first leg round of 16 tie in the champions league. Chelsea drew 1-1 at Southampton whilst Atletico Madrid were defeated 2-0 at home to mid-table side Levante, which was their second successive loss of the campaign. In Group A in the champions league Diego Simeone's side finished a distant second behind group winners Bayern Munich, winning two games before the competition took its winter beak. Chelsea, under former boss Frank Lampard, went unbeaten throughout Group E, securing three rare away wins as well as scoring the most goals on the road throughout the whole competition. Chelsea have scored twice as many goals as Atletico Madrid (14 compared to the Spanish side's 7).  Chelsea have also not lost an away game to Atletico Madrid, winning once and drawing twice. The last game in Spain for Chelsea was the 4-0 demolition of Sevilla, e...

Chelsea make four changes for tonight's Champions League clash with Atletico Madrid There is a return back to the defence for Andreas Christensen and Callum Hudson-Odoi also returns to the starting line-up at right wing-back.  N'Golo Kante is replaced in the midfield by Jorginho and in attack, Olivier Giroud replaces Tammy Abraham. There are places on the bench for both Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic, as is N'Golo Kante who could possibly make his 200th appearance tonight.  There is also a first appearance in the champions league this season for Marcos Alonso. Hosts Atletico Madrid make three changes to their team from the weekend. Missing out are the injured Yannick Carrasco, Jose Gimenez and Sime Vrsaljko all miss out. To replace them in come Felipe, Joao Felix and Thomas Lemar. Atletico are expected to line up in a 3-1-4-2 shape. For more articles on news relating to Chelsea Football Club please visit my twitter account  Link -  Follow Chelsea (@FollowChelsea4)...

Thomas Tuchel saw a run of five wins in a row come to an end as Chelsea drew 1-1 in today's lunchtime kick-off against Southampton, however the subject of much of Thomas Tuchel's analysis after the game was the sharpness required to score goals to win a game whilst keeping it tight defensively. Thomas Tuchel on the touchline during Chelsea's 1-1 draw at Southampton Tuchel saw his side go behind for the first time in the seven games that he has been in charge as head coach when Southampton scored on the counter attack in the first half. A penalty in the second half from Mason Mount secured a point for Chelsea. Despite Chelsea conceding their first goal scored by an opposition player under Tuchel, the German was very content with the way that his team played at St Mary's apart from Chelsea's work in and around the penalty area. Tuchel regretfully said 'we created opportunities which in the end were not opportunities'.  'We opened up a lot of space for our ...

Another goal for Mason Mount on the South Coast however, it was not enough to claim all three points as Thomas Tuchel's side had to settle for a share of the points at St Mary's  Mason Mount celebrates equalising from the penalty spot for Chelsea against Southampton Despite controlling the majority of the game, Chelsea fell behind in the first half as Takumi Minamino managed to escape through the Blue's defence to give the hosts Southampton a lead which lasted for 20 minutes.  Mount remained lively throughout the game, taking inspiration from playing for local rivals Portsmouth, and won Chelsea a penalty from which he scored the equalising goal. The man at fault for Chelsea's penalty was Danny Ings who went to ground whereas a more sensible defender would have stayed on his feet, with their being little reason to argue against the decision. Danny Ings brings down Mason Mount to give Chelsea a penalty  With plenty of time in the game remaining, both teams had opportuniti...

Tuchel admits that it has been difficult in giving playing time to Hakim Ziyech, but Tuchel is confident that Ziyech's moment will come. Hakim Ziyech has seen himself pushed down the pecking order for a place in Thomas Tuchel's starting line-up Hakim Ziyech ahs mote featured in the premier league for Chelsea since starting the goalless draw with Wolves which was Thomas Tuchel's first game in charge as Chelsea head coach. Ziyech was on the pitch for 70 minutes in the FA Cup against Barnsley, but since then has found himself behind the likes of Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic and Callum Hudson-Odoi for the two places as a central striker in Tuchel's preferred 3-4-2-1 system.  Tuchel stated 'it's my fault actually not his.' 'There are often some decisions for my other players which means that Hakim suffers a little bit as a result. I agree with this, I accept this is my responsibility and my fault that he is unable to show more of his potential.' 'As...

Chelsea make four changes for today's lunchtime kick off away at Southampton  Goalkeeper Edouard Mendy makes a welcome return to goal and there is also a first start under head coach Thomas Tuchel for Kurt Zouma in defence, whilst there are also returns for N'Golo Kante and Reece James. Kepa Arrizabalaga, Andreas Christensen, Jorginho and Callum Hudson-Odoi all drop to the bench. Chelsea are expected today to line up in a 3-4-2-1 formation which has been predominantly adopted during his tenure up to date, Tammy Abraham has recovered from his leg injury which forced him off in Chelsea's win over Newcastle at the beginning of the week to lead the attack. Abraham will be supported in attack by Mason Mount and Timo Werner. Zouma will partner with Antonio Rudiger and Cesar Azpiliqueta in central defence, with Marcos Alonso and Reece James deployed as wing-backs. Kante replaces Jorginho as Matteo Kovacic's partner in midfield. For more articles on news relating to Chelsea Foo...

There appeared to be some mixed news relating to injuries ahead of our trip to Southampton on Saturday lunchtime, with Thiago set to be ruled out of the game at St Mary's and Christian Pulisic unlikely to travel, even though others who were a doubt were expected to be available. In his pre-press match conference Thomas Tuchel reported from Cobham  through a video link, speaking before the final training session before Chelsea headed to Southampton this afternoon.  Whilst this meant that Tuchel could not be a 100 percent certain about the condition of all of his players ahead of Saturday's game, he was able to reveal that Thiago Silva would not be involved at St Mary's. Tuchel stated 'Thiago will be out of the game as he is not already.' Thiago Silva will not feature in Saturday's game against Southampton despite training with the team yesterday Thiago Silva has not featured since coming off early in Chelsea win over Tottenham at the beginning of the month. Meanw...

The first of back to back away games for Chelsea against opponents playing in red and white stripes takes us to England's south coast and a meeting with Southampton. Chelsea will dock at port Southampton, this Saturday lunchtime. A victory for Chelsea against the Saints would place the Blues only one point behind Leicester City who travel to Aston Villa on Sunday. With the return of the champions league on Tuesday, Thomas Tuchel will be extremely eager to to continue building the promising start to his managerial tenure at Stamford Bridge. So far the German has gained 13 points from his first five games in the premier league, a tally only bettered at Chelsea by Carlo Ancelotti and Maurizio Sarri both of whom managed to achieve 15 points from their first five games. Tomorrow's opponents Southampton have lost their last six games in the premier league this is in start contrast with Chelsea's run of 5 consecutive victories in the league at St Mary's this being the best seq...

Chelsea's recent record against Newcastle United continued following Monday night's 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge as we look at those players who made significant contributions in defence, midfield and in attack. Olivier Giroud celebrated scoring Chelsea's opener  Kovacic the controller Chelsea's Croatian midfield maestro Matteo Kovacic delivered another excellent performance and kept up his good run of form. The Croatian help to set the tone for Chelsea's display with an assured performance whilst in possession and showing willingness to carry the ball further up the field and pick spaces in the Newcastle defence.  Kovacic recorded the highest figures in the game for possession (10%). touches (107), pass completion rate (96%), passes (86), most successful passes in the final third (21/24) and dribbles (8). Matteo Kovacic's impressive numbers in Chelsea's victory  In fact the Croat accounted for eight out of Chelsea's successful nine dribbles. Only Maso...

Chelsea head-coach Thomas Tuchel appeared to be more pleased with Chelsea's first half performance in comparison to the second half in the Blues 2-0 win over Newcastle, but already feels that he has identified both the negatives and the positives from the game. Chelsea defeated Newcastle United 2-0 at Stamford Bridge to move into the champions league qualification places thanks to goals from Timo Werner and Olivier Giroud in the first half. This was in stark contrast to the second half performance by Chelsea where Newcastle fought back hard and applied more pressure for Chelsea to maintain their two goal lead. 'I enjoyed the first half' Tuchel said. 'We played with a lot of courage and had a lot of touches in their box and also had a lot of shots. We managed to keep Newcastle away from our own box and did not allow them chances of even half-chances so I liked this a lot.' 'During the whole game, we lacked precision in the final decision and we also lacked decisi...

Timo Werner has found himself recently involved in lots of Chelsea's goals without actually scoring himself, so his name was the most deserved on the scoresheet in Monday's win at home to Newcastle  The German was fouled for both penalties which he won at Tottenham and at Sheffield United, as well as setting up Mason Mount in the game at Bramall Lane and then delivered the cross for Olivier Giroud to gobble up to put Chelsea 1-0 up against Newcastle on Monday.  Shortly after that, a corner fell at the feet of Werner from a few yards out and the German forced the ball over the line for his fifth goal in the premier league this season. This accompanies the five assists and four penalties which he has won. Afterwards Werner said 'I am happy that I was finally able to score a goal.' 'As a striker you always want to score goals. Last month I was not happy about not scoring, bit it's a team sport at the end of the day. When we win it is a very good feeling. When I am ...

Chelsea defeated Newcastle United 2-0 in Monday night's premier league fixture at Stamford Bridge to move into the top four thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Timo Werner finally getting on the scoresheet Chelsea did the damage to Newcastle United in a brilliant first half performance as the Magpies had no answer to Chelsea's width, allowing the Blues to create several chances. Chelsea took the lead after half and hour through a burst down the left hand side by Timo Werner. Newcastle goalkeeper Karl Darlow could only palm Werner's low cross to Olivier Giroud, who came on to replace the injured Tammy Abraham was on hand to emphatically put the loose ball into the back of the net. Having provided the assist for Giroud's goal Werner himself then scored Chelsea's second before half-time, sweeping in after a corner had ricocheted around the penalty area despite Darlow clawing the ball away even after it had already crossed the line. Newcastle showed vast signs of im...