Three days after failing with an attempt to have their Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers postponed, Chelsea are set to be forced back into action again for Wednesday's EFL Cup quarter-final against Brentford.
The Blues are suffering an ever-worsening coronavirus outbreak within their squad, giving Brentford extra hope of claiming a major scalp in this West London derby.
Match preview
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Should this match go ahead as planned - something which is far from guaranteed during this time of short-notice postponements - then it will no doubt only add to Chelsea's fury that they are continuing to be forced to play despite having a severely depleted squad.
The Premier League and EFL decided on Monday to keep the festive fixture schedule as planned, with games due to be played unless a club proves that they do not have enough players to fulfil the fixture.
Chelsea felt as though they met that threshold at the weekend when they requested for their match against Wolves to be postponed, only for the Premier League to reject that request and insist that the Blues play the game.
Thomas Tuchel was subsequently only able to name four outfield players and two goalkeepers on his bench at Molineux as he watched his Chelsea side lose more ground in the title race courtesy of a goalless stalemate.
Chelsea now sit six points adrift of leaders Manchester City following a blip which has seen them win just one of their last five games across all competitions, and only three of their last eight top-flight outings.
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As one of only two teams to have fulfilled all 18 Premier League games as well as playing in Europe and reaching the EFL Cup quarter-finals amid the coronavirus crisis, Chelsea may view Wednesday's game as an opportunity to rest some first-team players first and foremost, rather than a chance to reach the semi-finals of a major trophy.
Doing both would be the ideal scenario, and Tuchel will particularly not want any of his key men going all the way to penalties, as has happened in five of Chelsea's last six League Cup games against Premier League opposition.
That includes both matches so far this year, with the European champions overcoming Aston Villa and Southampton via shootouts to set up this meeting with Brentford.
Tuchel's side go into the game winless in their last three matches on the road, but in general their away form has been impressive this season, including a 1-0 win at the Brentford Community Stadium in the Premier League.
That result came in the middle of a five-game winless home streak for the Bees, but they have now won their last two in front of their own fans - most recently a 2-1 triumph over Watford on December 12.
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Postponements against Manchester United and Southampton mean that that match against Watford was Brentford's last outing home or away, and their own coronavirus situation remains uncertain given that they requested the Southampton game to be postponed just five days prior to Wednesday's match due to rising cases within their squad.
With the exception of League One Sunderland, Brentford are the biggest underdogs left in this season's competition, although the stats suggest that they should perhaps instead be regarded as the team to beat.
Thomas Frank's men are the leading scorers in the EFL Cup this term with 12 from their three outings, thanks largely to a 7-0 drubbing of Oldham Athletic in the third round.
Brentford have only ever scored more League Cup goals in a single campaign once in their history - 15 in 1991-92 - with Forest Green Rovers and Stoke City having also been dispatched during a relatively kind route to the quarter-finals.
Chelsea represent by far their toughest challenge yet, but a first ever cup victory over their West London neighbours would put the Bees in the semi-final of this competition for the second successive season, having never reached the last four during their first 60 League Cup campaigns.
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Team News
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Both sides are likely to be missing a host of players for this match, and given Tuchel's fury at being made to play at the weekend, it would not be a surprise to see him hand starts to some youngsters if needed.
Chelsea could reportedly be missing as many as seven players due to coronavirus, although Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ben Chilwell and Lewis Baker are the only ones to have been confirmed positive so far.
Things went from bad to worse against Wolves as the already-depleted Blues saw Trevoh Chalobah and Hakim Ziyech limp off with injuries.
Tuchel is hopeful that neither injury is particularly serious, but the quick turnaround in fixtures makes them major doubts for this game at least, while N'Golo Kante will play no part.
Kai Havertz sat out against Wolves due to illness but has returned a negative coronavirus test and so could be in line to start up front on Wednesday, having scored four goals in his two previous League Cup outings.
Chelsea will also assess Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who missed the game against Wolves due to a knock, but Jorginho was able to return to training on Monday after missing the match against Wolves due to an inconclusive test.
Andreas Christensen is also suffering from a knock and is unlikely to be risked, which could open the door for Malang Sarr to make a rare start.
Tuchel is expected to rotate where possible, meaning that there could also be appearances for Kepa Arrizabalaga, Saul Niguez, Ross Barkley and the fit-again Mateo Kovacic.
A number of Under-23 players were also brought into training this week to help boost numbers, and some could be included in the matchday squad.
Brentford's list of absentees is also lengthy, although Ivan Toney is understood to have recovered from coronavirus and so could be in contention, while it has been more than 10 days since Ethan Pinnock tested positive too.
To make matters worse, the Bees' injury situation is far from ideal too, with David Raya, Julian Jeanvier, Joshua Dasilva and Kristoffer Ajer all sidelined.
Wednesday's match is expected to come too soon for Mathias Jorgensen as well, leaving Frank short of options in defence, particularly if Pinnock is still unavailable.
At the other end, Brentford boast the competition's leading scoring in Marcus Forss, whose five EFL Cup goals this season mean that he has now scored nine and created one more in his 10 League Cup starts.
Brentford possible starting lineup:
Fernandez; Goode, Jansson, Thompson; Roerslev, Ghoddos, Bidstrup, Jensen, Fosu-Henry; Toney, Forss
Chelsea possible starting lineup:
Kepa; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Sarr; James, Saul, Kovacic, Alonso; Mount, Barkley; Havertz
We say: Brentford 0-1 Chelsea
Uncertainty over what to expect from each team - and therefore each game - is likely to be a feature of the upcoming weeks, and it is particularly prevalent in this match with both clubs at different stages of a COVID outbreak.
Chelsea's strength in depth is formidable, but even that is being stretched at the moment and Brentford may not get many better chances to get one over their neighbours, although they too are likely to be far from full strength.
We are backing the visitors to just about edge this one, but if they are to reach the semi-finals then they will need to overcome plenty of adversity en route.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Chelsea win with a probability of 49.24%. A win for Brentford had a probability of 25.43% and a draw had a probability of 25.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Chelsea win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.5%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.4%) and 0-2 (8.98%). The likeliest Brentford win was 1-0 (7.72%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.04%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with an 9% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Chelsea would win this match.
