Chilwell, Cucurella, Sterling: The Chelsea team news to face Everton in Premier League opener

Thomas Tuchel will take his Chelsea side to face Everton in their opening game of the 2022/23 Premier League season and he is set to have a full squad available. 

Chelsea travel to Goodison Park to face Frank Lampard’s side on Saturday evening, looking to get off to a winning start and put their defeat to the Toffees back in May behind them. 

After dealing with many injuries last season, the Blues will be keen to keep a clean bill of health for most of the season to give them the best possible chance of closing the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool for the Premier League title. 

Tuchel has many selection decisions to make and his choice has been made harder due to the fact he has a full squad available to him, from what he has made public during his pre-match press conference on Friday. 

Here is the latest Chelsea team news, including Marc Cucurella, Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling. 

Marc Cucurella 

The 24-year-old completed his £63 million transfer on a six-year contract on Friday and the paperwork was rushed through to ensure he would be available for selection on Saturday. 

That was the plan by the club, with Tuchel admitting prior to the signing: “The paperwork is in process and hopefully we can get it finished before noon and Marc is our player. He is a fantastic, young player. Hungry, mobile, very intelligent player. Can play several positions in our system, that’s why we hope the transfer goes through.”

It has been confirmed that the Spaniard was registered in time which could see him make his debut for the Blues against Everton. 

Ben Chilwell

Chilwell experienced a season-ending ACL injury last term and made a comeback in the final game of the season against Wolves for a few minutes at Stamford Bridge. 

He has recovered and built himself back up during pre-season, collecting match minutes in the process, but is still on his pathway back to 100 per cent. 

Tuchel knows he can’t, and won’t, rush Chilwell back as they look to avoid another setback, which could indicate he may not start against Everton at Goodison Park. 

The Chelsea head coach said: “Absolutely it helps in depth (Marc Cucurella’s arrival) and especially for Ben to escape the pressure of ‘I have to deliver. We need you absolutely now’. We have, of course, also in this position Marcos Alonso, Kenedy and Emerson. 

“Hopefully when things go through, Marc is the option in this position and he (Cucurella) can play very well in the back three. It’s a profile of Azpi, with the left foot. He gives us many options. Especially for Ben, he is very ambitious like always. He couldn’t wait to come back to team training. He looks better and better but at the same time it looks like he needs more time to adapt to the physicality of the match itself, which is absolutely normal. 

“It is not only about training and training exercises, little pitches. In the end it is a very demanding leave. We have to take care of him, it’s our responsibility. We can’t throw him in and see what is coming. He is impatient, we will never expect him to be fully patient. He knows, we speak a lot about it. Everything needs its time. He will get the time and still we will try to put him on the pitch as soon as possible. He is and was a huge asset for us with his speed and repetition of intensity.”

Raheem Sterling

The 27-year-old was added to Chelsea’s attacking ranks in the summer and looks to be a nailed on starter for the Blues every week. 

In pre-season, he played in a front three with Mason Mount and Kai Havertz, and Tuchel is set to give him the nod to make his Chelsea debut on Saturday. 

Ahead of the game, Tuchel said: He is one of our offensive players. If we play in the same structure it will be very fluid. It can be Kai, it can be him, it can be Timo Werner, also Armando Broja who is now in the squad. Different profiles, different type of playing. Liverpool and City showed it is possible to be very successful with a fluid type of offensive player on the nine position. We go from there.”