Chelsea bowed out of the UEFA Champions League after a thumping 8-2 aggregate loss to Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.
Attention now turns to Blank Gameweek 31, with the Blues facing Everton on Merseyside.
RESULT
| Team | Opponent | Result | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | PSG (h) | 0-3 loss | – | – |
SELECTION/ROTATION
| Team | Changes from GW30 | Players who kept their places (+ mins) | Other players (+ mins) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chelsea | 4 | Sanchez (90), Chalobah (90), Caicedo (90), Cucurella (71), Fernandez (60), Palmer (59), Joao Pedro (59) | Hato (90), Andrey Santos (90), Neto (90), Sarr (45), Acheampong (45), Garnacho (31), Delap (31), Lavia (30), Tosin (19) |
CHALOBAH INJURY
Some Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers will already be hard-pushed to get 11 players out in Blank Gameweek 31, so the last thing they’ll need is players with unaffected fixtures picking up injuries.
Trevoh Chalobah (£5.5m) owners will be fearing the worst, then, after the Chelsea centre-half was stretchered off on Tuesday.
The defender’s ankle twisted and buckled in a challenge with Achraf Hakimi, leaving him in distress as he was carted off. That stoppage-time exit left the Blues with 10 men, not that it mattered at that stage.
“I think he was really worried. I’ve just checked with the medical team. We’ll obviously scan and assess him tomorrow. We are hoping and praying that it’s not as bad as we first feared.” – Liam Rosenior on Trevoh Chalobah
The player himself provided some relatively good news on social media, confirming that his ankle isn’t broken.
Trevoh Chalobah on Instagram pic.twitter.com/F16kfZ1SAu
— Pys (@CFCPys) March 17, 2026
However, Liam Rosenior said to TNT Sports that it looked like a “high ankle sprain”. If it is that, it could be at least six weeks out for the centre-back.
GUSTO ILL, NEWS STILL AWAITED ON JAMES
Chalobah could be joining Reece James (£5.6m) on the sidelines, then. Rosenior ruled James out of this match in advance because of a hamstring injury, with reports suggesting he could be unavailable for several weeks.
The Chelsea boss couldn’t give us much new after full-time.
“Not yet. I’m waiting for the full results of his scan. And hopefully, he’s back sooner rather than later.” – Liam Rosenior on whether he had any update on Reece James
Another right-back, Malo Gusto (£4.9m), couldn’t feature due to illness. Centre-half Benoit Badiashile (£4.4m) similarly missed out with a bug.
“Malo Gusto was down to start the game and pulled out… not pulled out, he was very ill. We gave him as much time to recover. ” – Liam Rosenior on Malo Gusto
In the absence of Gusto and James, Mamadou Sarr (£4.5m) started as right-sided centre-half/right-back hybrid, with Pedro Neto (£7.0m) ahead of him, effectively as a wing-back. It didn’t work, with Sarr having a torrid evening – he made a costly error for the first goal and was hooked at half-time – and Neto not helping much with cover.
ENZO, PALMER + PEDRO: WELCOME EARLY SUBS AHEAD OF GAMEWEEK 31?
While they didn’t exit the field as early as Sarr, Cole Palmer (£10.6m), Enzo Fernandez (£6.6m) and Joao Pedro (£7.8m) all came off on the hour mark.
That was effectively Rosenior hoisting the white flag at 7-2 down. From an FPL perspective, it means that this trio of well-owned Fantasy assets is relatively fresh for Saturday’s clash with Everton.
“I think it’s not an admission [of defeat]. It’s a reality of where the group are. They’ve played over 100 games in 18 months. They’ve had no break in terms of the international games; the travelling that, say, Joao Pedro, Enzo Fernandez or Moises Caicedo do to South America. It’s not an excuse. This is a by-product of success at the Club World Cup and it’s a great thing that the club achieved at the Club World Cup.
“You’re seeing with Reece [James], you’re seeing with players, that if I don’t manage their minutes, their likelihood of getting injured is increased very highly. So, I want us to make sure we’re in this competition next season as a minimum. We’re still fighting for an FA Cup, but I have to make maybe really difficult decisions that at the time probably don’t look great, to be honest. You never want to take off your best players when you’re five goals down in a tie, but I want to make the right decisions for the football club in the long term, as well.” – Liam Rosenior on taking off Enzo, Pedro and Palmer
The Chelsea attack as a whole was ineffective but Pedro was about the best of them, curling narrowly wide, forcing a save from a narrow angle and nodding off-target.
Palmer’s one meaningful effort, a deflected shot from the edge of the box, was clawed away.
THAT’S THE REAL QUIZ…
PSG deserved to progress over the two legs but enough to merit a six-goal margin? Not really, as the expected goals (xG) breakdown shows…
On aggregate:
Chelsea (2.88) 2-8 (2.23) PSG
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) March 17, 2026
As Rosenior said after the game, many of the French side’s eight goals were “either great strikes or mistakes”.
That was the case on Tuesday, with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia pouncing on Sarr’s error to open the scoring before Bradley Barcola and Senny Mayulu both scored superbly from the edge of the box. No real blame for Robert Sanchez (£4.8m), who again started in the absence of Filip Jorgensen (£4.3m).
Ultimately, class told over the 180 minutes.
It’s all eyes on the Premier League for Chelsea now, then. Even their FA Cup quarter-final tie is against League One strugglers Port Vale, and we’ll perhaps see a second string sent out for that.
All of that should, at least, assuage any game-time concerns over Palmer et al going forward.
