Cucurella is the only natural left-back in the Chelsea squad, so is under pressure to play a lot of minutes for the Blues, but caretaker manager Calum McFarlane — who is in charge against City following Enzo Maresca’s departure — has not yet been given final confirmation over whether Cucurella can return against City at the Etihad.

However, with City’s interest in the air, Chelsea have already begun to plan for a potential managerial change. One name that has emerged strongly in internal discussions is Liam Rosenior, currently managing Strasbourg.

RC Strasbourg head coach Liam Rosenior was the immediate frontrunner to replace Enzo Maresca, making the jump up from our BlueCo sister club, and it sounds like the expected outcome will be reached sooner than later … perhaps quite a lot sooner than later.

It was on Thursday lunchtime that the Italian’s departure was formally announced, and around the same time, one of Chelsea’s sporting directors rang under-21 head coach Calum McFarlane to ask him to take charge of the team’s away match against Manchester City on Sunday.

Manchester City host Chelsea on Sunday evening at the Etihad in a pivotal game in the top five of the Premier League. And Paddy Power have a new customer offer of 50/1 enhanced odds on there to be