Chelsea secured a hard-fought 2-1 victory over Spurs in a rocking derby day atmosphere at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening, with Enzo Fernandez and Andrey Santos finding the net either side of half-time, to ensure Richarlison’s response was nothing more than a consolation for the visitors.
We did so without three of the players who had started against Manchester City in the FA Cup final three days earlier, with James an unused substitute, while Colwill and Joao Pedro sat out the derby completely.
‘Levi has obviously come off the back of a very serious injury, so it was probably too quick of a turnaround from the cup final,’ explained McFarlane, when asked about those three players’ absence after the game.
‘So that one pretty much speaks for itself, we didn't want to risk him. We couldn't afford to risk him tonight, but that would be expected. That would've been the plan from the beginning.
‘Reece is the same. We had Reece on the bench tonight but, again, coming off the back of an injury, the turnaround from the City game, the type of game that the City game was, we didn't really want to risk him in that moment.
‘Joao Pedro had a slight knock. It’s nothing that we're massively concerned about but, again, with the quick turnaround from City, it just wasn't worth risking Joao Pedro in that moment.’
Given there were no serious concerns for any of those three absentees against Tottenham, McFarlane was asked about their chances of returning to the team for our final Premier League fixture of the season, away at Sunderland on Sunday afternoon.
‘It's definitely a wait and see,’ he responded. ‘We've got a little bit of time from now until then, so we're hopeful, but we won't know that until we see how the next couple of days unfold.’