Graham Potter sacked by Chelsea. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
According to Football.London, Chelsea boss Graham Potter has set up the first team training plan ahead of the mid-season friendly against Aston Villa in the middle east.
After suffering a defeat to Newcastle United in their last competitive game on November 12, the Blues are expected to be back in training on November 29 (Tuesday).
After that, the squad, who are not playing in the World Cup, will be flying to Abu Dhabi to commence their warm weather training which begins on December 4th.
The early parts of the training camp would give us an idea of the recovery situation of a number of players. Reece James, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Ben Chilwell and Wesley Fofana missed the World Cup due to injury, while Armando Broja picked up an injury during Albania’s international friendly. Ruben Loftus-Cheek got himself hurt against Newcastle.
Chelsea face Aston Villa CBF | Al Wahda Challenge Cup on December 11th, which is close to two weeks away. It would be nice if Potter has the majority of the injured players back in contention to play even a small part in that game.
The advantage of having the camp in Abu Dhabi is that if a World Cup-bound player gets eliminated in the group stage, it would be easier for him to join the club camp in the country adjacent to Qatar.
With no Carabao Cup tie to look forward to after losing to Manchester City in that competition, Chelsea return to competitive action on December 27th at home against Bournemouth in the Premier League.
The Blues are currently eighth in the league table, hence starting the second half of the season on the right note would be of great importance.
All that is possible if the players train well during the camp and get on board with what Potter wants them to do. This can be labelled as the first pre-season-like camp that the new manager is undertaking.
It would be helpful for him to understand the players better after going through a hurricane of games since getting appointed as the new boss in the early part of this season.
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