Enzo Maresca and his Chelsea squad put the finishing touches on their preparations on Friday ahead of tomorrow's FA Cup third-round tie against Morecambe.
The Blues have had a full week to prepare for Saturday’s FA Cup match at Stamford Bridge, since last weekend’s 1-1 Premier League draw at Crystal Palace, but it came to an end today in the final training session before facing Morecambe.
The League Two side are the visitors to west London for the next chapter in Chelsea’s proud history in the world’s oldest club competition. The importance in English football of the venerable trophy wasn’t lost on Maresca and his squad as they finalised their preparations to open this season’s campaign in the third round.
‘The FA Cup is very important,’ said our head coach, when speaking to the media in his pre-match press conference ahead of taking on Morecambe at the Bridge.
‘It’s another competition and as I’ve said since the start, we want to do well in every competition - whether that’s the Premier League, the Conference League, the Carabao Cup or the FA Cup.
‘Tomorrow’s game against Morecambe is no different, we go to win like we do every match. It’s an important competition because it has so much history and culture attached to it.
‘We are prepared for the game and I know a lot about Morecambe now because we’ve watched many of their videos to be ready for tomorrow.’
Among those out on the training pitch during Friday’s last session at Cobham before that match were Romeo Lavia and club captain Reece James.
Maresca also confirmed that the duo could return to action for the first time following injury, which would give the Blues a timely boost for our 2024/25 FA Cup opener.
‘Yes Reece and Romeo are both available and hopefully they can get some minutes for tomorrow’s game,’ Maresca confirmed.
‘The rest are all available for selection other than those that were already injured from before. Benoit Badiashile and Wesley [Fofana] are out and Kiernan [Dewsbury-Hall] is still injured, so he won’t be involved.’
As was clear in training today, there is still plenty of talent at Maresca's disposal tomorrow even without that trio, especially with the potential involvement of James and Lavia.