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Chelsea have been given a huge boost ahead of their clash against Manchester City in the FA Cup final on Saturday afternoon.<\/h2>\n <\/p>\n\n
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\nChelsea signed Alejandro Garnacho from Manchester United during the summer of 2025(Image: Photo by Alex Pantling\/Getty Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/p>\n
Calum McFarlane looks set to welcome a few big names back to the matchday squad when Chelsea face Manchester City in the FA Cup final. Unlike Pep Guardiola’s side, who have had just two days to prepare for the clash at Wembley Stadium on Saturday afternoon, the Blues have had a week to recharge their batteries.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the Manchester City boss suggested that Chelsea have an unfair advantage. On Wednesday, following a 3-0 win over Crystal Palace in the Premier League, Guardiola pointed out to reporters that the Blues will have had the entire week to sharpen their tools.<\/p>\n
The following afternoon, McFarlane was quizzed on the Spaniard’s remark. The interim Chelsea head coach said: “It’s tough when you have a game midweek, and you have a triple game week, it’s tough<\/p>\n
“We’ve had a lot of them this year but we’re focused on ourselves, we’re focused on how we prepare, we’re playing against an excellent side, and an excellent coach, so we need to be at our best, irrelevant if they’ve had a triple game week or not, so that’s what we’re focused on.”<\/p>\n
FOLLOW OUR CHELSEA FB PAGE!<\/strong> Latest Blues news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page<\/strong><\/p>\nThen, on Friday, Guardiola doubled down. He said: “I would prefer seven days like Chelsea had, but when you reach the final of the Carabao Cup, and you win domestic trophies, you have less days.<\/p>\n
“It happened in the past when we won the titles, and it\u2019s not necessary to remember. The schedule is what it is. Of course, it\u2019s not ideal, but it is what it is.<\/p>\n
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“We did it in the past, and we have to do it tomorrow because the big clubs find that when you are in more difficult circumstances than the opponent, you do extra to try to do it. And this is what you have to do. It\u2019s simple.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not the perfect scenario to prepare for the final because we didn\u2019t train absolutely anything since our last game against Crystal Palace. But it is what you have to do, and we are going to try.”<\/p>\n
With so much time to prepare for the clash, Chelsea have been able to welcome some big names back to action. Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho returned to training this week following spells on the sidelines.<\/p>\n
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\nEnzo Fernandez celebrates after scoring for Chelsea against Leeds United(Image: Cameron Smith – The FA\/The FA via Getty Images)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/button><\/div>\n
“(They) have trained well this week, so looking really good, really hopeful with them as well. So, yeah, positive signs,” said McFarlane, who then also confirmed that Robert Sanchez was available for selection again. “Yes, same news as the other lads, to be honest.<\/p>\n
“Really positive, he’s trained well this week, and we’re really hopeful to get him to Saturday,” added the 38-year-old. On whether the Spaniard is his ‘go-to guy’, he said: “I don’t think I’m going to reveal my starting line-up on two days before the game.”<\/p>\n
Later in the press conference, McFarlane claimed that Reece James would be available, too. The interim Chelsea boss said: “Yeah, he’s trained well this week.<\/p>\n
“Happy with Reece. Good to get him some minutes, and I thought he played well when he came on as well. So, yeah, largely positive around Reece.”<\/p>\n
McFarlane continued: “We were confident he was able to play those minutes in Liverpool. He came through them well. He’s trained well this week. So, yeah, we’re really hopeful we can finish the season in that sort of form.”<\/p>\n
And on Levi Colwill, who made his first start in almost a year at Anfield last weekend, McFarlane said: “Same sort of story. He has a really good rehab. He’d played a few games before.<\/p>\n
“He played for us against Forest. I think his first game back was he played for the 21s two or three times. So, again, a really good training week for Levi. He was exceptional against Liverpool. So, again, we’re really hopeful.”<\/p>\n
Full 20-man Chelsea squad:<\/strong> Robert Sanchez, Filip Jorgensen; Malo Gusto, Reece James, Josh Acheampong, Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo, Jorrel Hato, Marc Cucurella; Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Andrey Santos; Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho; Joao Pedro, Liam Delap, Shim Mheuka.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chelsea have been given a huge boost ahead of their clash against Manchester City in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}