Carney Chukwuemeka is an up-and-coming midfield star at Chelsea. (Photo by VLADIMIR SIMICEK/AFP via Getty Images)
Young summer signing Carney Chukwuemeka bagged a brace as Chelsea beat Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 in a behind-closed-doors friendly game that was played on Saturday at the Amex Stadium (h/t Evening Standard).
This was the first time since becoming the Blues manager that Graham Potter returned to the Seagulls’ stadium, albeit the game was merely semi-competitive with no crowd.
Chukwuemeka, who was signed from Aston Villa in the summer window for £20m, is yet to make a senior appearance for Chelsea this season. However, the youngster did his chances no harm with a good performance in the friendly and the scoring of two goals.
The players who started or came off the bench against RB Salzburg on Wednesday and are due to join their national teams were given a weekend off to rest and recuperate.
Fringe players namely Armando Broja, Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Conor Gallagher, Denis Zakaria and Trevoh Chalobah got a good run out against Brighton.
Chelsea were supposed to play Liverpool at Stamford Bridge this weekend. But the game got postponed due to the lack of police staff required for this game as they are deployed for crowd control following the death of the Queen last week. The funeral to take place in London on Monday is a contributing factor too.
The Blues also got the last weekend off when their scheduled game against Fulham was called off due to the aforementioned reasons. Keeping that in mind, this game would have done wonders to the players who haven’t played much football this season so far.
Also, it turned out to be an opportunity for players like Chukwuemeka to catch the eye of the new manager before the team plays next.
Chelsea are now due to play Crystal Palace on October 1 at Selhurst Park in the Premier League. There are doubts regarding that game too due to the organised rail strike on the same day but for the sake of not congesting our fixture schedule further, hopefully, that game goes ahead.
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