Chelsea to unleash 5 new players vs Arsenal as Mauricio Pochettino gets Christopher Nkunku boost

Can an international break come both at the exact right time and the exact wrong one? It seems so.

Chelsea, who entered the last break on the back of a defeat to Nottingham Forest and with just four points from four games, five goals and a dysfunctional squad in its infancy, have ended this period of games on a high. It didn't always look like this spell of positivity would come though.

Shortly after the defeat to Forest they were only able to draw with Bournemouth and then made it three consecutive goalless matches in a row with a loss to Aston Villa. The boos drew in, outside pressure on Mauricio Pochettino built and serious questions of everyone and everything at the club were raised.

Not that three wins on the bounce completely resolves the underlying issues and uncertainties, but it's much better that way. Chelsea are now slowly climbing the table and breaking unwanted streaks that have been set in the past 12 months. This has been the best week for the club since March and before that it was October 2022.

It is, then, with this smile and casual wave that Chelsea's squad, or most of it, breaks up for international duty. Just that little bit more settled and reassured of what has been and what is to come, Mauricio Pochettino can sit back that little bit further in his chair for the next two weeks.

But would he rather that games kept coming? After all, when there's a patch of form and a settled squad the last thing needed is for it all to be scattered across the world. It took long enough and was surely sleepless nights worth of effort and energy to get even to this point, it feels a slight waste to see it put on the backburner.

Christopher Nkunku sends new Chelsea message with major injury boost ahead of Arsenal

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