Graham Potter has been discussing the personality and performance levels of two defenders in the build-up to this afternoon’s clash with Wolves.
Wesley Fofana will miss the game after spraining his knee in the midweek win against AC Milan, moments after he had opened his Chelsea account with the first goal in our 3-0 victory. The damage is not thought to be as severe as first feared, with the initial diagnosis being an absence of weeks rather than months.
The young Frenchman’s withdrawal saw a call from the bench for Trevoh Chalobah, who slotted into the right-sided centre-back role effortlessly and exemplified the readiness of those in Potter’s squad not selected in the starting 11.
‘He epitomises the group,’ said the manager. ‘Everyone is ready to come in, play and help.
‘Trevoh has been really professional, hard-working in training and his level has been high. In that regard, his performance was a reward of that behaviour.’
Thiago Silva is 15 years the senior of Chalobah but has registered 90 minutes in each of Potter’s three games so far, demonstrating all the attributes of his many years in the game as we kept out the Rossoneri on Wednesday night.
‘I thought he was outstanding,’ Potter continued. ‘His reading of the game, his positioning and his organisation of the back-line were fantastic. Aerially he dealt with [Olivier] Giroud, which is not easy, but he competed well with him, and his distribution from the back was really good.
‘He’s 38 and when he’s playing like that he’s an impressive person. I’ve really enjoyed working with him, he’s a character and a proper guy with fantastic experience behind him but has a humility to just do the job, which is nice to see.’
The Brazilian’s long-held dream to represent Brazil at the World Cup in Qatar is now just weeks’ away from being realised and Potter admitted that every player would start to think towards that tournament more and more as it neared.
However, he disputed any suggestion of it being a distraction, citing Thiago Silva’s own professionalism and ability to live in the moment as evidence that club form would not be compromised.
‘Everyone has half an eye on the World Cup a little bit and we’d be fooling ourselves if we didn’t think that was the case, no matter what country,’ he added.
‘I think this will be his fourth one with Brazil so there’s half an eye definitely and he wears that with pride, responsibility and respect because he’s so professional.
‘To be 38 years old competing in the Premier League and Champions League at the highest level, you don’t do that by thinking about something that’s six weeks away. You get it by being in the moment and taking care of the day, the training session that you’re in, the game that you’re in.
‘How he prepares and recovers, how he rests and focuses on his daily work is why he’s so good and why he’s going to the World Cup.’
As for facing Wolves today, Potter claimed he had not yet decided whether Thiago Silva would start, insisting that a late call would be made following our midweek exertions in the Champions League.
‘That’s where our work is and our job is for the next 24 hours in terms of making sure and assessing all the players in terms of their recovery and where they’re at,’ he said.
‘We’ll be taking all the information in terms of the load that they’ve had over a period of time and then make sure we have a team that’s fresh enough and ready to deal with the demands of a Premier League game against Wolves at home.’