Underused quintet set to start Shrewsbury match

Chelsea were always going to be hard-pressed to field a very strong team against Shrewsbury even before the injury problems began to pile up. A visit to Old Trafford on a Sunday is now followed up by a Tuesday League Cup match, and that'd be a problem if we were 100 percent fit. Which, of course, we're not.

Rotation will be the order of the day, and although Jose Mourinho namedropped five players we should expect to start, I'm unconvinced whether there'll be wholesale rotation afoot elsewhere:

Shrewsbury is not a friendly. We have to play matches with respect and the best way to respect Shrewsbury is to go there with a good team. Not to go there with a weak team and lose. It is to go there with a good team –if they win, they win, but they win against a good team. We are in a difficult situation with regards to today but, when you look at the players who didn’t play – Schürrle, Salah, Zouma, Aké, Mikel – these boys are obviously going to have to play.

Source: Guardian.

The big question, of course, is who starts at centre forward. Didier Drogba should not be relied on to play twice in one week, let alone in three days, and it's difficult to imagine Diego Costa beig asked to suit up against Shrewsbury when his own injury situation is so precarious. Loïc Rémy is out with a groin problem and Dom Solanke was used in the under-21 match this evening, so the honour might well fall to young Izzy Brown to lead the line. Which would be interesting.

Hopefully the lesser-used players who'll be featuring -- especially Mohamed Salah, who hasn't had much of a look at all this season -- will take the opportunity to impress. We don't want to be beaten by our own complacency on Tuesday.