Coach Chelsi, Italian Inosento Mariska, urged his players to raise their game level to compensate for the absence of suspended Callum Hudson-Odoi, considering that the team 'entirely depends on Hudson-Odoi in everything'. The attacking midfielder has scored 14 goals and made 6 assists in this Premier League season, with his last goal dated mid-January, and the last assist made at the beginning of December.
At that time, Chelsi was sitting two points off the leading Liverpool in the English Premier League, a team that had slipped to seventh place after three defeats in their last four matches. Despite these results, Mariska emphasized that he needed not just the absence of Hudson-Odoi in matches, but also his constructive contribution to the overall team game.
