3 big reasons Chelsea fans should be happy they don’t play until Monday night

After 5 games without a win in the Premier League, we’re itching to see Chelsea pick up 3 points. Unfortunately for us, it won’t be happening this weekend. The Blues are not playing until Monday night, frustrating times for those of us who want to see them get back on track ASAP.

But there are some advantages to this wait. Here are 3 of them.

Firstly, it means more rest time for Reece James and Romeo Lavia. Both returned from injuries against Morecambe last week, playing the first 45 minutes of a pretty easy cruise to a big win at home.

Lavia then started against Bournemouth on Tuesday night and did well – the team really fell apart once he went off. James meanwhile started on the bench and came on, scoring the extra time free kick to equalise. We reckon that after those two appearances, both should be ready to start on Monday night – and that extra two days rest makes a big difference to that.

Secondly, the extra day gives the returning Trevoh Chalobah more time to adapt. His recall from Crystal Palace was completed at the start of this week, and he will have had a good few sessions to get back into the swing of things. He won’t need much more than that, given he’s only been gone 6 months and was at full match fitness.

Thirdly, we want to see the effects of another (almost) clear week on Enzo Maresca’s coaching. He had a full week leading up to the Morecambe game, and then has had Tuesday until Monday here. That’s two pretty solid chunks of time which he wasn’t getting over the busy Christmas period.

We really hope he can make it stick, and we see evidence of progress from that training time.