Maurizio Sarri has no new injury problems ahead of Chelsea’s trip to Fulham but he is undecided whether to recall Kepa Arrizabalaga. The Blues boss dropped the Spanish goalkeeper for Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat of Tottenham following his refusal to be substituted at the end of extra time in last Sunday’s Carabao Cup final loss to Manchester City with penalties looming at Wembley.
And Sarri admitted that he is yet to decide whether to restore the 24-year-old, who was also fined one week’s wages for “a big mistake”, in goal at Craven Cottage on Sunday.
Willy Caballero started against Spurs and will share goalkeeping duties with Kepa in the next two games as Chelsea play Dynamo Kiev in the Europa League last-16 first leg next Thursday.
The 60-year-old Blues boss said: “The Kepa situation now is closed. Kepa is our first (choice) goalkeeper. “But we are very happy for Willy, because now we know very well he’s able to play also in a very difficult match. “I’m sure in one of the two next matches Kepa will be on the pitch.” Sarri has no injuries to consider but expects to rotate his options after a challenging week. He added: “I think we need to change three or four players, I don’t know how many (precisely). “On Sunday we played for 130 minutes and 95 minutes on Wednesday, so we need to value the recovery. “We ran for 15 kilometres on Sunday on average, and the average of the last match was 12km. “I need to value the recovery of every single player.
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Then we have to decide (the team).” Former Chelsea midfielder Scott Parker will be in caretaker charge of Fulham after Claudio Ranieri’s sacking on Thursday and Sarri anticipates a response. Asked about Ranieri’s departure, Sarri said: “I’m really very sorry. But I know very well his character, so I know very well that we will see him very soon, on another bench. “Usually when there is change of the coach there is a reaction. And so we have to front (face) also the reaction. “Then it’s very difficult for us to prepare the match, because we don’t know the new system, the new ideas. It’s a very difficult match, I think.”
