How Chelsea will line-up against Everton with Gilmour set to start in place of suspended Jorginho after cup heroics
BILLY GILMOUR is set to be handed his first Premier League start against Everton on Sunday amid Chelsea's injury nightmare.
The Toffees travel to Stamford Bridge for a 2pm kick-off that could have a massive impact on the race for European football.
But the Blues have many absentees including Jorginho, who is suspended after accruing his tenth booking of the campaign, and freshly injured pair Mateo Kovacic and Willian.
Picking up an Achilles knock against Liverpool in midweek, Croatian star Kovacic joins N'Golo Kante and Marco van Ginkel as the midfielders unavailable for boss Frank Lampard.
That means Billy Gilmour is in line to make his first league appearance since November off the back of a star performance versus the Reds.
Set to partner the 18-year-old in a 3-5-2 formation is Ross Barkley with very few alternative options available.
In attack, Willian fell foul of a similar injury during the FA Cup victory with Callum Hudson-Odoi, Christian Pulisic and Tammy Abraham also missing - plus defender Andreas Christensen.
Speaking in midweek, Lampard summed up his terse injury situation: "Both [Willian and Kovacic] have got an Achilles’ issue.
"Willian hopefully is not too bad, that is what he is reporting there so we will see how he is.
"Kovacic’s feels slightly worse. Hopefully not too drastic, so we’ll see.
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"Sometimes you can moan about injuries, and I have done because we had some big ones early in the season and particularly in recent times, but the reality is that you have to get on and keep with it.
"And when the players show the fight they did tonight you hope that it gives them a bit of strength as a group for whoever comes in to keep moving forward."
One big decision is whether to stick with centre-forward Olivier Giroud or swap back to Michy Batshuayi, while Kepa Arrizabalaga did enough against Liverpool to persuade Lampard he deserves to start in between the sticks.