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Chelsea host Leicester City on Thursday, May 19 knowing that a victory will secure the Blues third place in the Premier League.
Thomas Tuchel's side head into their penultimate game of the season, a fixture which was rescheduled from matchday 27. They come into the game off the back of their heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat to Liverpool in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday, May 14.
Having won just one of their previous five clashes, Chelsea will be desperate to return to form over the Foxes. Their manager Brendan Rodgers was a former coach at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues defeated tonight's visitors 3-0 in the reverse fixture earlier in the campaign.
Ahead of the clash in west London, Tuchel made two changes to the starting lineup that lost the FA Cup final. N'Golo Kante is preferred to Mateo Kovacic, while Mason Mount drops out for Hakim Ziyech.
However, one player conspicous by his absence is Kepa Arrizabalaga, with the Spanish goalkeeper once again left out of a Premier League starting XI.
The 27-year-old has endured a torrid spell in English football since his big-money arrival from Athletic Bilbao in 2018. He has made only made 15 appearances for the Blues this term.
Supporters took to Twitter to voice their displeasure at Kepa not adding to his tally of four top-flight appearances across the season:
Thomas Tuchel commits future to Chelsea despite ownership issues
It has been a turbulent season at Stamford Bridge. The British government sanctioned former owner Roman Abramovich for his links to Vladimir Putin in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
LA Dodgers owner Todd Boehly looks set to take over (as per The Telegraph) and Tuchel is looking forward to bringing some normality back to the club.
During his pre-match press conference, Tuchel said (as quoted by The Express):
“What I can promise is that I will be here if I can promise that."
“I will be here with full energy and positive energy no matter what. We will still work for Chelsea and I refuse to think of negative scenarios.”
The German boss later claimed he was expecting a better campaign for his side next season, stating:
“We will be competitive. We are rebuilding, not improving the squad. We are rebuilding. This is always challenging but we are up for the challenge."
“Normally at this time of the season you are contacting players, you are out, you get a feeling, a read, you have discussions, you have dialogue, you have feedback, you know who is committed, you find your targets, or you sign your players or you go from there to the next step."
