One player who might not be in the squad tonight is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who has had a horrible year, from losing the Arsenal captaincy, being bombed out by Mikel Arteta, finding a haven in Barcelona and then being told that he was no longer wanted, that brutal robbery, being signed by his mentor Thomas Tuchel who was sacked merely six days later. And now he has been omitted from the Champions League squad, meaning he can’t play against Dortmund in the Westfalenstadion that adored him on Feb 15, the clear implication being that Chelsea want rid of him. If he is in the squad, it will be the strangest of all signals from Chelsea, a total head-fudger for the player.
At his pre-match press conference, Potter, who has a victory over Palace and a draw with Liverpool in the bank after that defeat by Fulham, said Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Raheem Sterling are all available, though none of them ready for 90 minutes. Fulham, by contrast with Chelsea’s seven injury absentees (Armando Broja, Christian Pulisic, Ngolo Kante, Wesley Fofana, Mateo Kovacic, Denis Zakaria and Mendy) have only Neeskens Kebano unavailable as they try to win at Stamford Bridge for the first time since 1979 and complete their first ever double.
Marco Silva has new signings Sasa Lukic and Cedric Soares to call on after two binary defeats by Newcastle and Tottenham following their victory over Chelsea. Silva, surely a candidate for manager of the season, was asked at his press conference about his memories of Stamford Bridge and spoke poignantly of his first visit.
“I will tell you one memory for me that was the saddest one, but one that comes clear in my mind, was Ryan Mason had a bad injury when I was in Hull,” he said. “It comes to mind because it was probably my saddest day as a manager in football.
“It was that evening, Chelsea against Hull, [memorable] because of what happened to Ryan Mason. Each game is a different story and we have to write our own story tomorrow.”
Mason tried to make a comeback from the fractured skull but was forced to retire 12 months later, aged just 26. Since then he has moved into coaching, becoming the youngest manager in the Premier League at the age of 29 when he stood in as interim Tottenham head coach in 2021 after the sacking of Jose Mourinho.