Medical staff “heavily involved” with decision to leave out Palmer and James says former Arsenal player | OneFootball

Alan Smith is on duty for Sky Sports doing commentary at Stamford Bridge tonight, and before kick off he addressed the notable Chelsea team sheet.

Reece James, Malo Gusto and Cole Palmer are all out of the squad entirely, despite having apparently been close to fitness for this game. Given previous manager Enzo Maresca apparently left in part because of conflicts with the medical department over who had the authority in deciding who got to play, it raises an interesting immediate question about whether new manager Liam Rosenior has had any say at all about whether to include them.

Rosenior knew he would have no control

Liam Rosenior signs his Chelsea contract. (Photo by Chris Lee/Chelsea FC)

“The medical staff will be heavily involved as they were with Maresca. Liam comes from the same school in terms of what happened at Strasbourg,” Smith mused.

“If they [James, Gusto, Palmer] aren’t involved, then they are going to be weaker. But if they are on the bench, bigger questions will be asked if they end up losing. If they’re not in the squad at all, then you have to think there are injuries to both.”

It certainly does make things easier if they’re out of the squad entirely. But we suspect all 3 could play if the club really wanted them to. After the Maresca nightmare, it will have been made very clear to Rosenior before he was offered the job that he doesn’t have the power to decide that.

In other news…

The team news for tonight had a lot of other interesting things to note – and may be a very bad sign for this Sunday if some of the missing players have something more serious. It seems Rosenior is being cautious, which is no bad thing.

In the build up to tonight’s game we had our doubts about whether Estevao would start against the Gunners, well, now we have our answer…