Kepa, Azpilicueta, Barkley, Werner: Thomas Tuchel Hands Chelsea Quadruple Injury Blow After Charlotte Clash

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cesar Azpilicueta, Ross Barkley and Timo Werner did not feature against Charlotte FC due to injuries.

The Blues fell to a 5-3 defeat on penalties after Christian Pulisic opened the scoring after 30 minutes in North Carolina.

The 23-year-old’s strike was cancelled out late on by Daniel Rios, who converted from the spot in stoppage time, after Trevoh Chalobah was penalised for a handball inside the area.

Conor Gallagher was the only player to miss in the shoot-out as the MLS side came out victorious in Chelsea’s pre-season clash at the Bank of America Stadium

The match was the Blues’ second of their pre-season tour of the United States, previously coming out triumphant over Club America in Las Vegas at the weekend.

Raheem Sterling made his first appearance in a Chelsea shirt, impressing with his direct running and movement in behind the Charlotte FC defence in the second half.

"I saw four accelerations in the second half I think and they all came from Raheem,” Tuchel said on Sterling’s display. 

“There is no need for major doubts or criticism, but it's never important what the manager has in his head ahead of pre-season."

As Tuchel made changes to his side, many players were missing. Kepa, Werner and Barkley were not involved in the matchday, while Azpilicueta was included on the bench but didn’t come on. 

Tuchel has now revealed why the quartet were absent for the friendly that was delayed due to the weather, handing Chelsea an injury blow after confirming they are all injured.

Werner is struggling with a hamstring injury, while Barkley picked a knock in training. 

Whether any will be back and available for Arsenal at the weekend for their final game of their United States tour remains unclear, with Kalidou Koulibaly likely to make his first appearance since joining. 

Tuchel admitted on Werner: "Hamstring problems and we didn't take the risk."

"Kepa has some pain that disturbs him to feel free in his movements. Azpi had a big knock above his knee in his muscle, he ran into Edou, it was a training accident. If it was a Premier League match we would've taken the risk but the risk was too big that maybe he takes another hit and is maybe three or four days and it was not worth it.

"Ross feels his hamstrings for some days, same as Timo. The risk of having injuries, even though it's more discomfort, it's more important they stay in training than to risk it in a game and to have a longer period of injury that we don't want."Tuchel wasn’t fully impressed with his side’s performance in Charlotte, giving two big chances away, as they failed to create many clear cut opportunities."

He added post-match: "In general, I would say we played a good first half but only 80 metres of the pitch. The last 20 metres were not good enough. We struggled with our decision making and precision in the last 20 metres.

"There were not enough chances, not enough clear chances. 

“We allowed two big chances out of nothing, this was the point of the very first. Otherwise I thought we played a very good match."

"Second half it took us 30 minutes to show some quality and then it was maybe only for 10 minutes. So not good, not good at all."