Roberto De Zerbi is hoping to get a senior Tottenham player back for the weekend trip to Chelsea. Spurs climbed to 16th in the Premier League after beating Coventry City 3-1 on Monday night, with James Maddison, Omar Marmoush and Ben Davies all on the scoresheet. The loudest roar at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium came when Dejan Kulusevski appeared from the bench, finally back after 17 months of injury setbacks.
Chelsea, now under Xabi Alonso, have begun the campaign strongly and sit fourth. They went to Everton on Saturday and won 2-0, so De Zerbi knows how demanding the test at Stamford Bridge will be.
Spurs should get a lift for the game, as Pedro Porro is nearing a return from the hamstring injury he picked up against Aston Villa on September 19. The World Cup winner went off after only 19 minutes, and he has missed two club fixtures plus all of Spain’s games during the international break. Last week he posted online that he was almost fit again, sharing a clip of what looked like Tottenham’s upgraded first-team gym at Hotspur Way, in which he jumped from a seated position onto a chest-high plyometric box.
football.london reported last month that Porro might return against Coventry or, failing that, at Chelsea. When asked on Sunday, before the Coventry game, De Zerbi indicated it would be the latter, saying Porro was on his way back and might feature at Chelsea.
Porro’s return would be welcome given the other fitness worries in the squad. Destiny Udogie sat out the win over Frank Lampard’s side with a knee problem, which De Zerbi explained came after he played 70 minutes against Man Utd, with the club choosing not to gamble on him.
Andy Robertson, Tosin Adarabioyo and Omar Marmoush were all seen limping off against Coventry. De Zerbi, though, played it down, suggesting none of them had suffered anything significant.
