The early team news ahead of Newcastle United’s visit to Premier League rivals Chelsea next weekend.
Chelsea will be relishing the return of two key defenders for their Premier League home clash with Newcastle United next Sunday afternoon.
The Magpies will travel to West London looking to bounce back from a deeply disappointing defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion – although they will have to improve what is a dismal record at Chelsea if they are to do so. Newcastle have taken maximum points from an away day against the Blues just once in the Premier League era and have lost 21 of their 29 games at Stamford Bridge during that time.
The Magpies will be hoping for their own positive news on the selection front with Callum Wilson set to be available for the first time this season as he enters the final stages of his recovery from a back injury. However, Eddie Howe will definitely be without the services of long-term injury victims Sven Botman and Jamaal Lascelles and Kieran Trippier is unlikely to return to contention until next month after suffering a hamstring injury.
Chelsea will head into the game knowing they will welcome back £130m of defensive talent as Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana have now completed one-match bans they received for collecting five yellow cards during the opening two months of the season. The duo missed Sunday’s narrow defeat at Liverpool but could be back in the starting lineup for the meeting with Eddie Howe’s side. What is not so clear is the availability of left-back Ben Chilwell, who appeared to be on his way out of Stamford Bridge during the summer. The England left-back remained with the Blues despite being linked with a move elsewhere and could now force his way back into contention after Maresca opened the door to a possible return to the first-team scene.
Speaking last month, the Blues boss: “Ben now is the only one [of the exiled group] still here so probably now we’ll sit with him and find a solution. Probably, he’s going to be back with us in training sessions. At the moment he’s not training with us. The reason he is training apart is because the idea was for him to leave. But because we didn’t find any solution, he’s here and probably he’s going to start to train with us. We need to decide that. If we decide that, he will be one of our players.”
After returning to training with the Blues first-team squad, Chillwell missed Sunday’s defeat at Anfield with an illness but could return to contention in the least for the first time this season when his side host Newcastle. Omari Kellyman will miss out as he continues his comeback from a hamstring injury but there was some good news for Maresca when defender Reece James came through the opening 53 minutes of the game against Liverpool in what was his first appearance of the Premier League season.
