London is Blue Dispatch #021

Another blank space in club football for a round of important fixtures from around the world, with massive World Cup qualifiers in Asia, South America and Africa, and crunch ties in Europe to decide who would qualify for Euro 2024. Here’s how the Chelsea players fared on international duty (happy spoiler: no one was injured.)

Goalkeepers

Robert Sanchez: Big Bob wasn’t called up to the Spain squad, with coach Jose Luis De La Fuente opting for Bilbao’s Unai Simon, Arsenal’s David Raya and Real Sociedad’s Alex Ramiro as his three keepers.

Đorđe Petrović: 24-year-old travelled with the Serbia squad, but did not play in the friendly vs Belgium or the qualifier vs Bulgaria as Vanja Milinkovic-Savic and Predrag Rajkovic ahead of him in the pecking order

Marcus Bettinelli: After recovering from an injury, was one of the many senior players who remained at Cobham and were put through the paces.

Defenders

Thiago Silva: O Monstro insisted before the last break that he hasn’t hung up his boots for Brazil, which indicates that new Brazil manager Fernando Diniz has dropped him from the squad. He has not been called up since Tite’s resignation, and trained at Cobham.

Reece James: Stayed back from England duty and chose to build his fitness back up cautiously.

Marc Cucurella: Was not called up by the Spain squad despite a mini-resurgence of sorts during the injury crisis. Spain have Jose Luis Gaya and the in-form Alex Grimaldo at leftback, which make breaking in all the tougher.

Ben Chilwell: Had been granted permission to continue his recuperation away from the club in Los Angeles, has since returned to the UK but is still some way off.

Benoit Badiashile: Just back from injury, continued his recovery work at Cobham. Should be ready for a starting role soon.

Wesley Fofana: Teasers on his Instagram stories indicating that he may be back on the grass soon.

Trevoh Chalobah: Presumably still some way off being close to full training.

Levi Colwill: Withdrew from the England squad citing a minor issue but has since trained at Cobham. Should be ready to go once the full crew is back.

Malo Gusto: Also withdrew from a France U21 call up due to a knock and decided to focus on recovering at Cobham.

Axel Disasi: On the bench for France’s 14-0 thrashing of Gibraltar, played 11 minutes in the 2-2 draw against Greece.

Ian Maatsen: Played in the U21 Euro qualifiers for the Dutch U21 against Gibraltar and was withdrawn at halftime. Played the full 90 in the next game in a 4-2 win against Sweden.

Midfielders

Enzo Fernandez: A gruelling calendar continues for Enzo as he played the full 90 in a crunch game against Uruguay which they lost 2-0. Played 70 minutes in a monumental 1-0 win against Brazil at the Maracana, putting Argentina on top of the CONMEBOL qualifying table and their bitter rivals in 6th.

Moises Caicedo: Played and excelled in a 0-0 draw against Venezuela, a game in which Kendry Paez also managed 70 minutes. Played the full 90 in the 1-0 win against Chile which put them above Brazil in the table.

Cole Palmer: Capped off a dream few weeks by earning his first international cap for England after replacing Rashford against Malta in a 2-0 win. Made another sub appearance in the draw against North Macedonia, escaped unscathed on a horrible playing surface.

Conor Gallagher: Started against Malta and took on a deeper role where he was largely ineffectual, with an error allowing Malta a dangerous attempt on goal. Did not come on in the next game, which is a big plus for multiple reasons, having started every game for Pochettino in the league.

Romeo Lavia: Hilariously shut down an imitator account on X with a tweet and encouragingly continued his slow climb back to full fitness in a bid to make his first appearance in a Chelseas shirt.

Carney Chukwuemeka: A comeback from the unfortunate knee injury shortly after scoring his first goal for the club was just about complete before a few setbacks delayed his return. Did not make the bench in the games against Spurs or City.

Lesley Ugochukwu: Played the full 90 in France U21’s Euro qualifier defeat to Austria, and then played the full 90 in a France U21 vs South Korea U23 friendly which they also lost.

Mykhaylo Mudryk: Had a largely disappointing showing after an electric start in a do-or-die game against Italy. Caused real problems a couple of times and should arguably have earned a crucial penalty after being fouled in stoppage time, but another VAR bungle ensured Italy went through and Ukraine would need to win a play-off to do the same.

Forwards

Raheem Sterling: Puzzlingly, continues to be benched by an increasingly hapless Southgate at a time when England seem to be sorely missing him. No Chelsea fan is complaining though.

Christopher Nkunku: Hourglass emojis galore as Christo seems very close to finally make his long-awaited competitive debut. Some reports say he should be ready for Newcastle, while others say Chelsea will not be tempted and will ease him in.

Nicolas Jackson: Came on from the bench for double goal-scorer Sadio Mane in Senegal’s 4-0 World Cup qualifier win over South Sudan and then for Illiman Ndiaye against Togo. Played a combined 43 minutes. More importantly, became a dad for the first time!

Armando Broja: Having recently recovered from a small knock, decided not to go with Albania and stayed back to work on his fitness.

Noni Madueke: Continues to look very good at U21 level with a bunch of eye-catching tricks and an assist to help England U21 beat Serbia and Northern Ireland by 3-0 margins in the U21 Euro qualifiers.