Why Chelsea didn’t play Rudiger vs Arsenal

Chelsea suffered a setback in the race to finish in the top four on the premier league table after they suffered a defeat to Arsenal on Wednesday night.

The game with the Gunners ended in a 1-0 scoreline after Jorginho’s poor back pass was saved on the line by Kepa Arizzabalaga, before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang set Emile Smith Rowe up for the winner.

While Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel in a post-match statement has said the Gunners won based on luck, he has however revealed why Antonio Rudiger didn’t feature in the match.

According to Tuchel, he revealed that he didn’t want to risk playing Rudiger and Werner against Arsenal due to overload and injury.

Recall that the Blues have already suffered injury problems in recent weeks, with Andreas Christensen battling a tendon issue and Mateo Kovacic still struggling from a hamstring problem.

“For Toni [Rudiger], we were at risk of overload and injury,” Tuchel told Chelsea’s website.

He said he couldn’t take the risk to have two central defenders out the team on injury.

Chelsea will return to action this weekend when they face Leicester City in the FA Cup final, hopefully, they would win their first trophy under Tuchel as coach.