One of the reasons the summer transfer window closed at the rather odd time of 6pm in the UK earlier today was to help clubs meet the Champions League squad submission deadline of 11pm. (Not 11:01pm, right, Manchester United and Real Madrid?)
In those five hours, well more like only four now, Chelsea will have at least one decision to make. UEFA's rules for Champions League squads allow only 17 non-homegrown players, but with the arrival of Papy Djilobodji on deadline day, Chelsea now have 18. Here's a visual breakdown, based on good work from a FanPost earlier this year.
While the likes of Kurt Zouma, Baba Rahman, Kenedy, and Bertrand Traore qualify as under-21 for Premier League registration purposes, and thus exempt from the non-homegrown squad limits, UEFA is a bit more strict in that regard. All four of them count as non-homegrown and thus put Chelsea over the limit of 17. Someone will have to be left out, and it probably won't be the new boy Djilobodji. Most likely, it will have to come down to one of Kenedy and Bertrand Traore, and seeing as how Kenedy seems to be ahead in that race right now, my money is on Traore getting the Schwarzer treatment this season.
This registration is only for the group stages. We will have a chance to amend the list in February, following the January transfer window (and presuming that we qualify for the knockout rounds).