One such player is Ruben Loftus-Cheek, back from England’s high-profile World Cup campaign which followed the 22-year-old’s year away on loan at Crystal Palace. He came on during the second half of Chelsea’s win at Huddersfield a fortnight ago but was not among the subs against Arsenal last weekend, a choice Sarri explained after the game was due to the balance of player positions he wanted on the bench.



It is point he elaborated upon in the lead-up to tomorrow’s game at Newcastle, having said yesterday that he expects the player to still be in the squad after the window for loaning players out closes next week.



‘Here the problem is the bench because in Italy the list for the match is 23 players, here only 18, so I have to decide every match the bench by the position on the pitch,’ Sarri said. ‘Sometimes I prefer to have two wingers and sometimes maybe I would prefer to have two midfielders.



‘I am not able to promise anything to anybody. It is up to him [Loftus-Cheek]. I usually look at the training and then I decide.



‘It is not so easy in this period because we play only once a week, but I have told the team in this month they have to be patient. In the future starting from September we play twice a week so there will be space for everybody.’

