It’s easy to look back on a defeat and think you can tell what was missing, but there was no doubting that the late absences of Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk were devastating for Chelsea yesterday.
We should have won, even without them, but they provide two of the strongest creative outlets in the team. Mudryk’s pace and Enzo’s passing would have been incredibly useful against a stubborn Brentford side.
The midfield trio of Conor Gallagher, Moises Caicedo and Fernandez was also really starting to click, and that was all rather undone by the Argentine’s absence.
The positive impact Reece James made when he came on also showed how important he could have been down the right had he been fit.
All three should be ready to play next weekend – will we finally see a close to full strength side? We will certainly need it, given the fixturess we’ve got coming up.