Fan favourite left out of Chelsea squad; but compatriot is finally established as Rosenior key | OneFootball

Estevao Willian has been left out of the Chelsea squad today; while fellow Brazilian Andrey Santos has cemented his status further.

Andrey Santos starts for Chelsea against Burnley today, marking his 5th start in a row for the Blues. It’s taken him a while, but he’s finally established as a first team essential.

Given his history with Liam Rosenior, everyone has been predicting this. But it’s nice to see it finally happening. Enzo Maresca never trusted him, and it’s been a long road to this point when you think back to his loan to Nottingham Forest.

It’s meant a tweak to the formation, with Enzo Fernandez pushed forward and Santos taking his place alongside Moises Caicedo in the middle. It gives the team really nice balance, and we’ve been calling for it all along.

Given our left wing options are injured or out of form, it makes perfect sense on that front too. We can’t wait to see him out there today.

Estevao left out while Santos thrives under Rosenior

Andrey Santos’ run of starts for Chelsea.

The news is not so good for Estevao. We were really excited to see him today, perhaps even as a starter. Burnley are struggling, and we’re playing at home. This could have been the sort of game he could feast. However, he’s not even on the bench.

We hope this is just illness or a minor injury. We’re sure we will hear more from Rosenior before or after the game.

In other news…

You can see the full team news from the game here, including a notable tweak at left back and an interesting selection on the bench.

Chelsea are looking great under Liam Rosenior, and Wesley Fofana has been speaking about what they’re doing differently.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: