Chelsea Reports

🚨🗣️| Mike Penders on his ambitions for his career: 'I have a lot of dreams...a lot of dreams. I hope I can win as many trophies as possible with the club. The big dream? I think that would be winning the Champions League or winning a World Cup with my country, something like that. And then maybe go for the biggest individual prizes. 'These are dreams that are far away, but you want to work towards them. This is the start of the journey.’ #CFC

🚨🗣️| Mike Penders on his own goal vs Tottenham: 'Right now I feel very good, he says. It's been a rollercoaster of emotions as well, but now I'm very happy I could react positively in the last two games. 'When it comes to pressure, I try to stay as relaxed as possible. And then, of course, mistakes happen. You think about them, that's normal, but I try to turn it into something positive. I try to learn about it. I like to look at the videos to see what I could do better, and then move on. 'It was a learning moment, and outside of the mistake, I felt okay during the game. The most important thing was to have a positive reaction in the next couple of games, and I'm happy I could bring that.' #CFC

🚨🗣️| Mike Penders benefitted from having his whole family in attendance at the Tottenham game. Afterwards, they offered support, of course, but were also able to take his mind off it by changing the subject when required. Penders also felt the love from his team-mates and his manager, Xabi Alonso. 'He spoke very positively about me during interviews, which gave me a lot of confidence to go into the next game. Also, my defenders and some of the other players came up to me and just spoke with me. I appreciated that a lot. ‘You don't forget these kinds of things, you know? The players who come up to you, write you a little message: "Keep your head up, keep going It means a lot.’ #CFC

🚨🗣️| Mike Penders on his excellent fingertip save from Mbeumo’s volley: 'The ball came so quickly, I didn't even see it properly. It was just instinct, pure instinct; a reaction. I felt a good touch on my fingertips, and after that moment, I screamed all the positive emotions out. I had to. I was so happy with that moment. 'Then, after the game, no-one believed me that I touched it! I was like, "Yeah, I touched it; you will see afterwards". 'Then it was pretty quickly on Twitter. A team-mate came into the dressing room saying: "He touched it". I was very happy it was a good angle because if the angle wasn't right, they could still have some doubts!' #CFC

📹🚨| The Cole Palmer Awards 🏆 Cole is presented with a catalogue of awards, and tasked with honouring the best in each category. Award categories include the best Premier League player, most underrated Chelsea player, and best celebration. #CFC

📹🚨| Chelsea training highlights from this week in preparation for Sunderland #CFC

🚨Jordan Henderson was back in training as you would expect after a virus this week. Confirmation that he is back to face Sunderland. [@NizaarKinsella] #CFC

🚨Moises Caicedo has trained a little this week, "doing bits of it" per Alonso, last session tomorrow before Chelsea squad travel to Sunderland, but we may be looking at a Henderson-Lavia midfield if unavailable. Aaron Anselmino has trained fully and has a chance of making Chelsea’s match-day squad vs Sunderland. [@kierangill_DM] #CFC

🚨Roma are exploring a move for Chelsea winger Jamie Gittens after enquiring about his availability. Roma are among several clubs, including four Premier League sides Leeds, Sunderland, Everton and Crystal Palace considering a January loan deal. RB Leipzig and Eintracht Frankfurt are among the Bundesliga clubs to have made enquiries about Gittens, with both sides monitoring the possibility of securing his services in January. Chelsea are open to allowing Gittens to leave on loan in January, with the Blues keen for the winger to secure regular first-team football after a difficult, injury-disrupted start to his campaign. Despite being prepared to sanction a temporary departure, Chelsea insist they continue to see a future for the England international at Stamford Bridge. [@GraemeBailey] #CFC

🚨Chelsea are ready to open discussions with Levi Colwill over a new contract, with an extension for their homegrown defensive star expected to become a priority in 2027 amid interest from Liverpool. Liverpool retain a strong interest in Colwill, with the defender continuing to be admired at Anfield as they assess their long-term defensive options. Chelsea are ready to open discussions with the centre-back’s representatives, although a new agreement is more likely to take shape in 2027 rather than being concluded immediately. Colwill is currently contracted to Chelsea until 2029, with Chelsea also holding an option to extend his existing agreement. His last contract was signed in 2023 and, given his development and importance to the first team since then, the club recognise that an improved long-term agreement will be required. [@GraemeBailey] #CFC

🚨Chelsea and Liverpool are keen on bringing AS Monaco's Lamine Camara to the Premier League in January after he came close to joining Chelsea in the summer. Having missed out on Lamine Camara in the summer, the expectation is for Chelsea to return with another offer. Liverpool are also showing 'strong interest' in Camara and are ‘ready to battle' Chelsea to secure his services. Manchester United is another option. However, there isn't any concrete information about their intention to sign Camara as early as January. [@Sport_Witness] #CFC

🚨🗣️| Xabi Alonso asked many questions about Cole Palmer not getting selected for England: Have you spoken to Cole about his omission from the England squad? “No, we have not spoken about that. We have been talking about our game on Sunday. We are very happy with Cole; I think that he's enjoying his game. He's connecting very well with the other attackers. He's helping the team. He's helping the team as well in developing and improving what we want and where we want to achieve, knowing that everything takes time, but I'm very happy with his quality, with his attitude, and the impact that he's having on the rest of the team. Are there perhaps any regrets at all that he missed the last England camp? We have not talked about that. We are focused on our things, on Chelsea things: how to do better, how to help him, how he can become more and more influential in the game, and those are our topics to talk [about]. Has he spoken to you at all about his hunger to play for the national team? We speak about Chelsea, we speak about us. We have enough in our plate. We have to focus each weekend, and that's my impact area, my control area, and what we talk about. On Cole Palmer, he recently had the red card, and he was left out of the England squad... He needs to focus on his thing, his thing is to play good football, to enjoy his game with us, with Chelsea, to connect with his teammates for sure. We spoke about the red car after the Spurs game. This is something that we have spoken about, but most of the things apart from that are about the game of football, about what we can do better. Cole withdrew from the last England squad and then played 88 minutes against Bournemouth. I was just wondering, how's your relationship with the national team and how does that work? I never tell [a player to withdraw from international duty]. Whenever a player is fully fit, is selectable when it's not fit, we try to give the national team's day the reasonable information to decide together sometimes because sometimes it's not good for the player. For example, Anselmino, he's been called for Argentina. They ask us, and he's been training for the last 10 days better and for him is very important to have this first call up, and with the others quite the same.” #CFC

🚨🗣️| Xabi Alonso asked how Martinez is getting on with his new face mask: What does it actually do, and how's he finding it so far? “He's getting used for sure it's not the most comfortable thing, but he's getting used to it. He's been training almost the whole week with it. For a certain period of time, I'm sure that he will have to deal with it and to cope with it. He's doing been doing everything with with that, so it's not obstruction and we have the green light from from the doctors after the concussion that it's been already three weeks, so we have we have everything.” #CFC

🚨🗣️| Xabi Alonso asked about Sunderland being a different challenge than United: Can I ask about Estevao? It will be a different challenge against Sunderland... “It was very good for him, for the team, that he had such an impact against Manchester United. We had taken the decision, and he knew what the game was going to be like, and it was for him very important that game, and for the team as well.” #CFC

🚨🗣️| Xabi Alonso asked about Chelsea being in the top four and if he’s on track for where he wants to be: Right now, Chelsea are in the top four. Are you on track to where you want to be? “Table means not too much because that can change so much in one week. In two games, you can be fourth, so we are taking a step forward I think. With the ball, against the ball, be more solid and we have a tough opponent to visit, Sunderland. We know what it takes to to win there. We know how demanding it will be. It doesn't matter, the table. I think that they deserve more points than they got and it's going to be a tough game away.” #CFC

🚨🗣️| Xabi Alonso asked: Sunderland qualified for the Europa League; Chelsea missed out... if you look at the league table now, do you think that result in any way is worse in the long term? “I haven't thought much about it. I remember watching that game because it had a direct impact on the following season. Now, we are where we are. We are fully focused on Premier League and for sure they have the Europa League, but as I've said, early early days to talk too much about the table we need to keep winning winning winning and to build this this mentality to go game by game. Also asked on Sunderland: Is there something different about the way they're playing? No, no, I analyse them, but it's a different system and for sure they have to take their considerations but we are expecting that it's tough and we are expecting a tough game and on Sunday as well and a team that do many good things. They they should have more points probably and that is not gonna be easy for sure.” #CFC

🚨🗣️| Xabi Alonso asked: Wesley Fofana had quite a difficult first half on Saturday; was there a temptation to take him off at half? “No, no, because it's about dealing with difficult moments and he did many good things. For sure, the mistakes, he knew and he reacted really well the second half he was solid. He was reliable as he was in Liverpool despite of the penalty. So no, no, he will know that I didn't think that. He's been already at the club for four years, so it's part of part of the job to deal with a sound that is not what you want to hear, to deal with mistakes, to deal with difficult situations. So, I'm seeing now that he's very focused this year. This is mature. He's had his baby, so that's making him more mature, as well as taking more responsibilities on the pitch as well. Sometimes he's not direct, but sometimes he helps as well, so we support him, and he's important.” [@Jake_Stokes] #CFC

🚨🗣️| Xabi Alonso on Sunderland being rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table: "It doesn't matter about their position in the table, they deserve more points than they have managed to get. They are a team that do many good things, so it won't be easy for us." [@NizaarKinsella] #CFC

🚨🗣️| Xabi Alonso says he'll have more updates on Joao Pedro and Maxence Lacroix after the international break: “No, not really updates,” he said. “For sure, we are not expecting them for [Sunday]. “Let’s see after the international break the recovery that they [have] made. Ahead of the Leeds game, I will have more [news] but not today.” #CFC

🚨🗣️Xabi Alonso on Cole Palmer not getting selected for England: "No, we haven't spoken about that (England) we speak about our game on Sunday. We are very happy with Cole. He is enjoying his game, connecting very well with the attackers and helping develop the team. I am very happy with his quality, attitude and the impact that he is having in the team." [@NizaarKinsella] #CFC