Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham let Chelsea break blatant rule in pre-season friendly thrashing
CHELSEA were allowed to break a blatant rule during their victory over Ryan Reynolds’ Wrexham.
New signing Christopher Nkunku got off the mark as they thrashed the League Two side 5-0.
Ian Maatsen, who has just returned from a loan spell at Burnley, grabbed a first half double to give Chelsea a 2-0 advantage at the break.
They stretched their advantage after the break against the club that are owned by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.
Conor Gallagher added a third with ten minutes to go before the floodgates opened late on.
Nkunku grabbed his first goal for the Blues since his £52m arrival from RB Leipzig.
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And then Ben Chilwell added the fifth deep into injury-time to ensure it was a five-star display.
Chelsea suffered an injury blow earlier this week when it was confirmed centre-half Wesley Fofana will miss the majority of the season after suffering an ACL injury.
The Blues suffered another scare in this clash when Trevoh Chalobah hurt his Achilles during the game.
Boss Mauricio Pochettino had already used all of his substitutes when the injury blow occurred to their captain on the night.
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However, they were still able to finish the game with 11 men as Marc Cucurella, who had started the match in the backline with Chalobah, came back on to replace his stricken team-mate.
It was a move that confused fans watching, with one tweeting: “Marc Cucurella’s twin brother has come in the game for Chalobah. Wow!!!”
Another commented “Eh? Is it rolling subs or something” as a fellow fan asked: “What’s happening?”
A player is not allowed to re-enter the game once they have been replaced, but Poch revealed afterwards that both the referee and Wrexham had given him the green light to bend the rules and bring on a player who had been subbed off.
Speaking about the 24-year-old Chalobah’s setback, Pochettino said: “Chalobah felt his Achilles and we wanted to play with 11 rather than ten. That was it.”
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