Enzo Maresca to consider three huge Chelsea changes vs Brentford as Garnacho point made

Alejandro Garnacho could be handed his Chelsea debut against Brentford (Image: (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images))

Enzo Maresca could make wholesale changes to his Chelsea starting XI for the trip to Brentford with a Champions League clash against Bayern Munich three days later in mind.

Injury problems have already significantly impacted the Blues, with Cole Palmer and Liam Delap suffering muscular issues. Maresca has since confirmed the latter will be out for several months but was able to offer a somewhat positive update on Palmer.

"Cole took part in the session yesterday for the first time, not the entire session," he admitted at a press conference on Friday. "Today in the afternoon we have one more session, we're going to try with him, if he's okay, otherwise he will be out tomorrow again."

When asked if it was about managing Palmer's minutes, he added: "No, no, it was an injury, he's recovering from the injury so it's not managing him, it's just recovery from the injury. For sure in the moment that he's available we also probably need to think to manage him to be in because of the amount of games."

On top of those two attacking blows, Maresca has several other major decisions to make in his frontline. Joao Pedro, Estevao Willian and Andrey Santos all featured for Brazil in Bolivia while Moises Caicedo - despite missing the first Ecuador game and being sent off in the second - has also been in South America for the last few weeks.

Maresca was asked about the quartet in his press conference and said: "The three Brazilian players arrived yesterday [Thursday].

"They didn't train. They did some recovery session[s]. Moi arrived last night, so I didn't see him. I will see him today. So for all of them, it's a question mark for tomorrow. But when they play in Bolivia, it's so difficult that they can be back very soon."

Caicedo and Pedro have started every Premier League game for Chelsea so far while Estevao has featured consistently. Santos has also made regular cameos off the bench and will likely do that more frequently as Dario Essugo is set to miss the next few months.

Alejandro Garnacho is one player that could be handed a role from the off but Maresca's comments make that unlikely.

"He's working well," the Chelsea boss said on Garnacho. "For sure he needs to work because he arrived here probably not 100% fit. So he needs to work. He's working well and we'll see. But hopefully soon we can give him minutes.

Despite all of his comments, if deemed fit, Pedro, Estevao and Caicedo are all still expected to start with Palmer more than likely on the bench alongside Garnacho.