Chelsea head to the King Power Stadium to face Premier League Champions Leicester City in the third round of the EFL Cup.
Chelsea will be without skipper John Terry for a second straight game after the former England international suffered an injury in their game against Swansea. David Luiz will once again take his place in the heart of defence and make his second EFL cup debut for the club.
Other than Terry, Kurt Zouma and Marco Van Ginkel who are still recovering from long term injuries, Antonio Conte will have a full strength squad to pick from. However, given that they face cross-town rivals Arsenal on Saturday, Conte is expected to give opportunities to the likes of Marcos Alonso, Ola Aina, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and even Nathaniel Chalobah.
The likes of Victor Moses and Pedro should also feature in a side that will look to beat a Leicester side which too, will have a lot of key players rested.
Leicester City welcome back defenders Danny Simpson, Jeffrey Schlupp and Yohan Benalouane i to the squad. The Foxes, however, will have to do without first-choice goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, after he suffered a concussion and midfielder Nampalys Mendy, who is nursing an ankle injury.
Speaking on the 24-year-old, Ranieri said, “He will start training with us and he is getting better but he is not ready yet. When a player comes back to me I want to watch him minimum one week or 10 days before making a decision.”
Goalkeeper Robert Zieler will retain his place in the squad, the manager confirmed. He said “He is good(Schmeichel), much better but Zieler made a very good match so I will continue with him.”
Ranieri is yet to decide on Yohan Benalouane’s inclusion in the squad. In his pre-match press conference, the Italian said “I am thinking about him, he is ready. He made one or two matches with the Under-23s and he is ready.”
Ranieri will have one eye on their match against Manchester Untied on Saturday, so a much changed Leicester City side can be expected with fringe players such as Okazaki, Ulloa, Chilwell, Gray and Amartey all likely to feature.
