On Sunday afternoon, Chelsea will meet Everton in the Premier League at Goodison Park.
The team led by Mauricio Pochettino lost midweek on the road against Manchester United, extending the trend of one stride forward and two steps back for the season.
The Everton team, led by Sean Dyche, now sits 17th in the league table, so the Blues could be in for a very challenging afternoon. It is noteworthy to mention that if they hadn’t lost points, they would have been above Chelsea and ranked 10th in the division.
Injury boost
Noni Madueke, 21, might have had difficulty earning playing time for the Blues this year. However, he continues to be a mainstay in the squads on matchdays.
The club included the right-winger on their pre-match injury list, therefore he did miss the midweek loss to Man United (official website).
But as we look ahead to Sunday’s Everton match, we’ve noticed that the England Under-21 international has been taken off the official website’s injury list as of today.
Pochettino made no mention of the £29 million attacker (Sky Sports) during the press conference on Friday. However, the team seems to have jumped the gun when it announced the young player’s good news.
Noni Madueke is available to face Everton.
After a brief hiatus, Madueke’s return will boost a bench that appeared to be lacking in experience at Old Trafford right away.
The 21-year-old has demonstrated his exceptional individual ability at PSV Eindhoven and throughout his brief stints at Chelsea. Indeed, we would be thrilled to see more playing time for the talented wide player.
According to recent reports from TEAMtalk, Madueke might end up going on loan in January to help him play more frequently.
We would advise Pochettino to use him frequently over this hectic festive run of games, since the solution to his issues might be sitting right there on the bench.