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Chelsea manager Antonio Conte will be unable to select star trio Alvaro Morata, N’Golo Kante and David Luiz when his side travel to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace this Saturday.
Which is far from ideal for the Italian coach, as these are the players that make up the vast majority of the spine of his team.
Spanish striker Morata and influential French midfielder Kante are both struggling with hamstring injuries; although Kante’s problem is judged to be a minor issue, and he will only be absent for this upcoming fixture, whereas Morata is facing up to six weeks on the sidelines.
David Luiz, on the other hand, will be unavailable as he is still serving a three match suspension for the red card he received for lunging in on Sead Kolasinac during his side’s recent 0-0 draw against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge.
These are exactly the type of issues Conte managed to avoid for the most part last season, when he was able to select from the same pool of 13 players for almost the entire campaign.
They are also the type of problems that the Italian coach anticipated – due to the extra burden of Champions League football – when he repeatedly stressed the need for the Stamford Bridge club to strengthen their squad this summer.
Despite losing three such important players, Conte’s side should still have enough quality to overcome a struggling Crystal Palace side.
The Eagles are rock bottom – without a point – having made the worst start ever to a Premier League season. Roy Hodgson’s side have conceded 17 goals and scored zero so far this term.
Although the former England coach will have spent the international break carrying out endless drills on team shape in order to try and make his team more difficult to break down, his side look woefully short on quality and are doomed for relegation.
Hodgson also has selection issues of his own to worry about, with star striker Christian Benteke out for six weeks with a knee injury and attacking midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek ineligible to face his parent club.
The smart money is definitely on Chelsea to come out on top in this London Derby, but it may well be a lot closer than many of us think, with Conte forced to shuffle his pack a lot more than he has had to so far during his Stamford Bridge tenure.
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