Yesterday was the deadline for Premier League clubs to finalise and submit the names of those who made up their 25-man squad for the current season.
The squads can contain no more than 17 players who do not fulfil the ‘Home Grown Criteria with the remaining 8 having to be home grown. However, players under the age of 21 do not need to be included in the 25-man list.
The list submitted by Chelsea is as thus (Home-Grown Players = *)
Tammy Abraham*, Marcos Alonso, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cesar Azpilicueta, Willy Caballero, Petr Cech, Ben Chilwell*, Andreas Christensen*, Emerson, Olivier Giroud, Jorginho, Ngolo Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Edouard Mendy, Christian Pulisic, Antonio Rudiger, Thiago Silva, Fikayo Tomori*, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Kurt Zouma
As for those U21, it includes the following:
Ethan Ampadu, Faustino Anjorin, Conor Gallagher, Billy Gilmour, Kai Havertz, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Reece James, Mason Mount, Malang Sarr
The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that, surprisingly, the name of Petr Cech appears on the list.
Discussing the inclusion of the 38-year-old, who retired when his time at Arsenal came to an end, Frank Lampard, as reported by The BBC
had this to say:
“It’s definitely not done for the romance. Pete enjoys the training, that’s how he is.
“With Pete, it’s something I wouldn’t expect to happen, but with how fit he is if we were in crisis we couldn’t have anyone better than Petr Cech around.
“I don’t expect him to play, but nobody expected what’s happened in the last six or seven months, so that would explain why he’s in there.
“We had a space this year, and Covid makes this a year like no other. He’s very fit, he’s still relatively young, and he finished playing when he possibly could have carried on.
“It’s a total no-brainer to have him in the squad.”
Cech’s inclusion is a major surprise but like Frank has said, you cannot take anything for granted in the strange pandemic times we live in, COVID-19 infections, illness, injuries, suspension and loss of form could, one day, see our technical and performance advisor, stroll out with the keepers jersey on and, like Frank says, I am sure he would not let us down!
Manchester United v Chelsea?
Manchester United to Win!
Chelsea to Win!
A Draw!
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