Mauricio Pochettino explained that Cole Palmer has been omitted from the Chelsea side against Brighton due to a knock he picked up in training.
There are concerns about the number of games over the festive period, with Chelsea facing eight matches across all competitions in December.
Palmer has been a clear standout performer for Chelsea thus far, scoring four goals and assisting twice in 11 appearances in the Premier League. But the Argentinian manager, Pochettino, chose to drop the 21-year-old to the bench against Brighton.
When pushed for an answer on Palmer, Pochettino added: “He felt something during the week and we don’t want to take a risk. We have too many games ahead, now we are going into a very busy period and we don’t want to take a risk,” he told football.london.
With the amount of matches that players have to play over the festive period, players fitness will have to be thought about more when figuring out team selection – less risks will have to be taken. Especially when it involves your star players.
Resting Palmer is a sensible thing to do with the heavy workload coming up, and if Chelsea need him in the second half, there’s always the opportunity to bring him on.