Chelsea were forced to make three late changes to their plans for football tonight when Joao Pedro, Levi Colwill and Malo Gusto were all left out of the squad to face Tottenham. The trio were missing when the line-ups were announced before kick-off for the Premier League London derby.
Sources said Joao Pedro was sidelined by a knock, while Malo Gusto was also understood to be carrying a knock that kept him out. Colwill’s absence was different. He had been out for all of the season until the beginning of the month after a serious knee injury, and Chelsea decided to leave him out because of load management.
The club has been careful with Colwill since his return. He had made only two starts and three appearances before the Tottenham match, and the plan was to stagger his comeback so he did not suffer another injury. That caution mattered because Chelsea are still trying to shape their run-in around a player they expect to need later in the spring.
The absences also opened the door for Josh Acheampong, Liam Delap and Andrey Santos to make rare league starts against Tottenham. For Chelsea, the team news came in a week when the stakes remain unusually wide open. A win over Tottenham and then Sunderland on Sunday could still carry them into the Champions League, but only if plenty of other results go their way.
There is, though, no clean path. Chelsea could also finish in the Europa League places or even land in the Conference League instead, depending on how the table moves. That is why every lineup decision now carries weight, especially with Colwill being handled carefully and with Pedro coming off a day in which Carlo Ancelotti left him out of Brazil’s squad for this summer’s World Cup. Chelsea are trying to keep one eye on tonight and another on what comes after it, because the margin for error has already shrunk to almost nothing.
