Here’s all the news from around Stamford Bridge over the past 24 hours.
‘Reckless’ Thiago Silva
Dermot Gallagher has said he can understand why Chelsea defender Thiago Silva was sent off against West Bromwich Albion.
The Brazilian defender saw red 29 minutes into the Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge, with the 36-year-old being shown two yellow cards on his first appearance for the Blues since February.
Thiago Silva has since accepted responsibility following the red card, but did not feel he deserved to be given his marching orders.
“I believe it was not an expulsion move, I haven’t seen the video yet, but the referee made his decision and we can’t change what happened,” he said. “I assume my responsibility for the expulsion, which unfortunately directly affected the result of the game.
Video Unavailable
“Now we have to join our forces, because Wednesday it will be another battle. Come on Chelsea.”
However, Gallagher, a former Premier League referee, said he felt the correct decision was made.
“It’s was a reckless challenge. He’s out of control,” he said as part of Sky Sports’ Ref Watch feature. “The referee thought it was a second yellow and dismissed him; seeing the pictures I can understand why.”
Real Madrid make Hazard announcement
Former Chelsea star Eden Hazard is not in the Real Madrid squad for Tuesday night’s Champions League quarter-final first-leg tie against Liverpool.
That is despite the Belgium international being pictured taking part in training ahead of the big game, suggesting he would be in contention to at least make the matchday squad.
But the 21-man squad has since been announced and Hazard does not feature alongside the likes of Karim Benzema, Isco, and Thibaut Courtois.
The 30-year-old has endured a nightmare time with injuries since arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu in the summer of 2019 is not being risked by Zinedine Zidane.
“Eden [Hazard] has to be calm,” he said at a press conference on Monday, prior to the announcement of the squad. “We never risk a player returning if he’s not ready.
“We’ll do things little by little and we’ll see when he’ll play again. That’s how it is at the moment.”
In each football.london Chelsea bulletin, we’ll be bringing you the latest breaking news, transfer features and comment pieces, as well as the key talking points for fans.
You won’t miss a single thing when it comes to Chelsea.
We’ll also send special newsletters when big stories break or there’s a special event happening. And with the January transfer window now open there’s plenty of content to get your teeth into.
How do you sign up?
It’s easy and only takes seconds.
Simply type your email address into the box at the top of this article – or any article on the Chelsea section of football.london in fact – labelled ‘Get the biggest daily stories by email’ and click ‘Subscribe’.
And that’s it, you’re all set.
If you decide later that you no longer wish to receive the emails, simply follow the unsubscribe link in one of the newsletters – but we don’t think you’ll want to.
For more details, click here.
Proof that Abraham is Chelsea’s best striker
As spotted by Chelsea fans on Reddit, Tammy Abraham has 107 career goal contributions.
That is the joint-highest of any current U23’s striker across Europe – alongside a certain Mr. Erling Haaland who has been tipped to replace him at Stamford Bridge in the future.
The stat was uploaded to Twitter by @ExpectedChelsea and Abraham responded with a couple of emojis.
Such an impressive record makes Thomas Tuchel’s decision to not even include Abraham in his matchday squad against West Brom even more of a surprise.
Furthermore, the fact that the 23-year-old is on par with Haaland could save the club millions in the transfer market if given the chance.
Although, the Blues head coach insists he has no issues with the striker.
“It’s nothing personal or nothing big. He has the same chance to play every three days like everybody else,” he said.