January 14, (THEWILL) – Andreas Christensen will miss Chelsea’s match against Manchester City on Saturday after testing positive for COVID-19, according to team manager Thomas Tuchel.
The Blues are currently second in the Premier League table, but they are already ten points behind league leaders City, so a positive victory this weekend is crucial.
Chelsea will have to play without Christensen, who is the latest player at Stamford Bridge to test positive. Tuchel made this known when asked about his team’s status before the match: “Trevoh [Chalobah] will be out, Ben Chilwell will be out, Reece James out. That’s the injuries.
“We have one positive Covid test with Andreas Christensen, so he’s out for the game.”
Tuchel might use the 4-4-2 system that he used in the Carabao Cup semi-final against Tottenham, or he could put in Malang Sarr for only his second Premier League appearance of the season.
It is not ideal for such a vital game, and Tuchel said that if City wins on Saturday, his team could be out of the title race.
When asked if defeat would put a stop to his dreams, Tuchel conceded, “Maybe,” before adding, “The biggest difference so far this season is that they dealt better with injuries and the Covid situation.
“Maybe it’s unlucky or maybe they do it better. They’ve had less injuries to key players and less weeks where they’ve missed them. They did not suffer from Covid as we did over many weeks. This is the huge difference.
“We had some draws in the season that were unnecessary. If you have your full squad, you create a certain atmosphere that pushes everybody to the edge, and you need to be at the edge at the very highest level if you want to compete with Man City. They are the benchmark. They are the best team in England right now. This is something we have to admit.”
Tuchel added: “Let’s play the game. I’m always up for a good fight, but I’m also realistic. If you look back at the last few games, when we have our full squad, when we feel good, we are always up for a good fight with Man City and we will always dare to push them to the limit and ask them questions they don’t like to answer.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
