“Too much pain” – Real confusion in contrasting reports on two absent Chelsea players | OneFootball

There is real confusion on contrasting reports on why Reece James and Pedro Neto did not play for Chelsea last night.

The word before kick off was that Reece James and Pedro Neto were having their minutes managed, as reported by The Athletic.

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This has happened a few times before with James, because of his recent injury issues. Chelsea have been protecting him. But some Chelsea fans started to fume that you do not rest your club captain in a semi final of a cup, it’s just not the done thing to do.

It makes you wonder whether Chelsea and/or Liam Rosenior saw these reactions going down and decided to defuse the situation a bit when asked about the absences of the two players.

Rosenior on Neto and James

Liam Rosenior speaks after the Arsenal defeat.

After the game, in words cited on X, Rosenior said:

“Pedro and Reece have small knocks. They were just in too much pain for tonight.”

This apparently came after a late fitness test for both players. So really, we have to take his word for that, don’t we? But The Athletic are a very reliable outlet and have good sources. So it does make you wonder where they got their info from and why they were told that. It’s all very confusing and very contrasting if you ask me.

Chelsea lose the game

After being 3-2 down from the first leg, Chelsea lost the tie 4-2 over two games due to losing 1-0 against Arsenal last night.

The Gunners now head to the final of the competition, and Chelsea head out of it.

Chelsea will certainly have many regrets that they didn’t go for it more in this game because for me, Arsenal were very much there for the taking and they were not that good at all last night.