It’s been a very long time since Thomas Tuchel was in this situation in midfield. Mateo Kovacic, Jorginho and N’Golo Kante are all fit, they’ve all got enough minutes in them to be fresh, but not enough to be tired.
That means Tuchel will likely be leaving one of them on the bench tomorrow against Tottenham, and could then rotate that player back in for Saturday’s game against Man City.
We could even see all three of them on the pitch at one time, with Chelsea switching to four at the back or using N’Golo Kante as one of the inside forwards in Tuchel’s 343.
It’s something we’ve seen later in games, and given the unique tactical challenges Man City present, it could well be in that game, say with Chelsea holding a lead in the latter stages, that we see all three deployed at the same time.
Whatever the coach decides to do, just having the option is a major step forward from where we’ve been for the last couple of months.
