Mauricio Pochettino and Chelsea may not have been active in the transfer window this month like many expected, but the squad he will have available to face Liverpool could well be very different to that of recent weeks. Despite not making any incoming transfers this month it has been a largely positive period.
The Blues have won three of the five matches played in 2024, losing just one – though that was to Middlesbrough and over half the games this year have been against Championship opposition – and look much improved. For Pochettino it has also come without one of his key players being available.
Much like the preceding six months of his Chelsea reign, the Argentine has been frustrated at the lack of opportunities to play Christopher Nkunku. Having made his debut shortly before Christmas, appearing in four games ahead of the New Year, Nkunku has been absent for the past four weeks.
He picked up a hip injury in training that has kept him out of five games now, but for the biggest test in the past two months he is set to return. “I think it is good news, Malo Gusto and Christoph [Nkunku] can be in the squad for tomorrow,” Pochettino said of his side’s fitness ahead of the game.
“Travel with us, with the team, that is good news. We will see. We will wait for the last moment, but at the moment, yes, it’s good news to have two players recovered.”
The French pair have been impressive when available this season but the frustration has often been just how little football they have been able to play. Gusto has had a better run in the side but even that has been disrupted by knocks along the way.
The return of Nkunku really will be like that of having a new signing though. It is his comeback and the progress being made by other players in the squad who have been in and out of the side that left the 51-year-old without too many demands of his recruitment team in January.
Outside of looking for a striker and shifting loan pawns around, it has been a quiet month. Getting Gusto and Nkunku back, as well as the arrival of Cesare Casadei from his temporary stay at Leicester, means that there is now fresh blood in the group. Casadei isn’t necessarily expected to make an immediate leap into the first team setup but he will provide a different option from the bench if called upon.
More importantly again, Nicolas Jackson has the chance to be involved too. The 22-year-old is still the club’s second top scorer, behind only Cole Palmer, but has been absent this year due to his commitments at the African Cup of Nations. With Senegal being knocked out of the competition he is now set to return and could be chucked back in at the deep end.
“And to see maybe, why not, to arrive Nicolas Jackson for tomorrow and to be involved also in the game,” Pochettino further mused at Cobham in front of reporters. “If he can arrive.”
Jackson, it has been reported, is expected to journey straight to Manchester from Ivory Coast before meeting up with his club teammates in Merseyside. He may not be in the starting XI after not taking part in any training sessions under Pochettino in the build-up, but his presence will be felt regardless.
With Armando Broja largely failing to make the most of his run in the side since Jackson’s departure, it is very possible that Palmer is played at front once more. This would only make Jackson’s availability from the bench more important. In a window of not being able to sign a striker, perhaps the one Chelsea needed all along has been there all along.
