Palmer and Sancho could miss Arsenal game

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Cole Palmer is a doubt for Chelsea’s London derby against Arsenal on Sunday, as is Jadon Sancho.

Palmer was hurt by a crude challenge from Lisandro Martinez during the recent 1-1 draw against Manchester United.

He has subsequently missed training and his fitness will be monitored ahead of the meeting with the Gunners.

Blues head coach Enzo Maresca explained: “Cole didn’t train yesterday. We hope [he will be available for Sunday]. We need to wait and see and then decide.”

Palmer is not registered for the Conference League group phase so in any case would not have been involved in Thursday’s match against Noah.

Sancho will miss that game and could also be unavailable for the Arsenal match.

“Jadon is recovering from illness but he also had a knock in a (training) session,” said Maresca.

“Tomorrow he is out but we will see if he can be available for Sunday’s game, otherwise it will be after the international break for him.”

Maresca has so far made major changes to his line-ups for cup matches and is expected to do so again this week.

“We have so many games in a long, hard season so for sure players will play across the Premier League, the Conference League, Carabao Cup and the FA Cup,” said the Italian.

‘We try to use all of these players because we will need them over the season.”