Against Burnley at the weekend Chelsea were cruising in the second half and able to make some useful changes to the team to rest some players and give others some minutes on the pitch.
One of those removed was Marcos Alonso, which seemed odd. Chelsea supposedly had a fit again Emerson Palmieri to come in for this midweek game and allow Alonso a night off. Why remove the Spaniard with half an hour to go when he was about to get the night off tonight?
The answer appears to be that Emerson is injured again. There’s no other reason we can think that he’s not in the squad tonight. The only other possible explanation is that Lampard wants to play Emerson in the first team, and is therefore playing Alonso twice to switch the order up – but that seems unlikely.
To make matters worse, it was of course Alonso who gave Manchester United’s (admittedly very soft) penalty in the first half.
Let’s hope Frank is asked about this after the game and can reveal the truth.
