Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel will be forced to work around the absences of three key players for Saturday evening's Premier League battle with Brentford.

The Blues are sure to be without Thiago Silva due to his late return from international duty, while Antonio Rudiger has gone down with back pain and is also unavailable.

However, Trevoh Chalobah produced the goods against Southampton and is likely to hold his place here, with Cesar Azpilicueta and Andreas Christensen completing the back three.

The Blues have been handed a timely boost with Reece James recovering from an ankle problem, though, with the Englishman's return to the right-hand side allowing Azpilicueta to move further back.

N'Golo Kante is also back in training after recovering from coronavirus and could partner Jorginho in the middle, while Ben Chilwell has found a goalscoring touch in the past couple of weeks and will now aim to keep Marcos Alonso out of the XI.

With Christian Pulisic still out with an ankle problem, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz ought to start in support of the lone striker, but it remains to be seen who that will be.

Romelu Lukaku left the Belgium camp over the international break due to muscular overload, and while Tuchel has talked up his chances of featuring here, Timo Werner will still hope to get the nod after netting in the recent win over Southampton.

Chelsea possible starting lineup: Mendy; Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Christensen; James, Jorginho, Kante, Chilwell; Mount, Havertz; Lukaku

Written by
Ben Knapton