Ange Postecoglou delivers Ben Davies injury update ahead of Tottenham v Chelsea
Ange Postecoglou could have no choice but to start Emerson Royal for Tottenham against Chelsea after an injury update on Wednesday (1 May).
Spurs will travel to Stamford Bridge on Thursday (2 May) for their second London derby in the space of a week.
After their crushing 3-2 defeat to North London rivals Arsenal at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday (28 April), Postecoglou will be keen for a positive result in West London.
But the Australian’s job has just become much more difficult after a devastating double injury blow.
Speaking to SPURSPLAY (via Tottenham Hotspur Official Website, 1 May), Postecoglou has confirmed that both Ben Davies and Timo Werner will miss the remainder of the season.
While the 58-year-old has plenty of options going forward, he is incredibly short of options at left-back after Destiny Udogie was also recently ruled out for the season.
As a result, the Spurs boss will likely be forced to start Emerson Royal in that position.
Emerson Royal will need to show signs of improvement for Tottenham against Chelsea
Spurs need three points at Stamford Bridge if they are to have any hope of keeping their fading UEFA Champions League aspirations alive.
If they are to leave with maximum points, Emerson will need to perform much better than he has during his most recent cameos.
The Brazillian has made just five appearances since the turn of the year, and there is a reason his minutes have been so limited.
As per Sofascore, when he came off the bench in the 49th minute of the 4-0 defeat at Newcastle (13 April) Emerson completed zero per cent of his crosses or long balls forward.
His last start came in the 3-1 home victory over Crystal Palace (2 March) and while he did okay defensively that afternoon, making three tackles and winning 100 per cent of his ground duels, he didn’t offer any quality going forward.
The right-back only managed to provide one accurate cross into the box from five attempts while he also failed to play an accurate long ball forward from two attempts and gave possession away 12 times.
Emerson will need to show much more if he is given the nod against Chelsea, which at this point looks incredibly likely to be the case.
In other Tottenham news, King has called for VAR to be scrapped after what happened in the North London derby.
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