Kalidou Koulibaly sends Graham Potter Arsenal message after coming through 10-day Chelsea drudgery
Kalidou Koulibaly returned to Chelsea on Wednesday night after what he described as “ten difficult days.”
With a knee injury suffered against Brentford, the defender missed the Blues’ games against Manchester United, RB Salzburg, and Brighton.
The Senegal international battled his way back into the game, surviving an injury scare in the first half, and eventually putting in a solid performance in Chelsea’s final Champions League group game against Dinamo Zagreb.
Graham Potter made it clear that he wanted to end this stage of the competition with a win, and Koulibaly was delighted to help his team recover from their defeat to the Seagulls.
Koulibaly said following the win: “It felt good. It was a tough game today as we knew we wanted to finish first. I think we played well even though we took this goal (against us). We played well and it prepared the game well for Sunday.
“Yes, Saturday can happen to have a loss but this is what’s good that you can give a positive answer and we did that. We now have to think about Sunday as it will be a tough game against a nice team.”
Arsenal currently leads the Premier League by ten points, with only one defeat under their belt.
The Blues welcome Mikel Arteta’s side, hoping to close the gap and improve on their 4-2 defeat at the end of the previous term.
Koulibaly returned to full training with the first team on Monday and played 64 minutes in the Champions League.
Koulibaly is happy for Potter to decide whether he is fit enough to play a second game in a row, but the former Napoli star believes he is.
He is well aware of the caliber of opposition he will face against Arsenal.
He said: “We will see if the coach chooses this. Me, at the moment, I am feeling better. I personally had ten tough days [to come back], but I am feeling better and ready to be on the pitch.
“[Arsenal] is a nice team, a tough team, they are winning. We know they have a lot of talents. They played together for years now. You can see it on the pitch. We will try to do our best on Sunday to win this game but it will be tough. We have home advantage and to be here with our supporters will be great. We will do our best to win this game.”
Kalidou Koulibaly sends Graham Potter Arsenal message after coming through 10-day Chelsea drudgery
