{"id":444597,"date":"2026-02-25T10:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T10:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/444597\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T10:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T10:24:10","slug":"chelsea-handed-unexpected-dario-essugo-boost-ahead-of-arsenal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/444597\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea handed unexpected Dario Essugo boost ahead of Arsenal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Add as preferred source on Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Chelsea have been handed a timely midfield boost ahead of their trip to the Emirates, with summer signing Dario Essugo spotted in full training earlier than originally anticipated.<\/p>\n

A central midfielder was on the radar for Chelsea<\/a> in the summer, but Douglas Luiz\u2019s move to Aston Villa and the desire to put trust in players already at the club put an end to that. <\/p>\n

Dario Essugo has struggled with injuries<\/a> since joining in the summer. He has not played a single minute of the current campaign, suffering a serious thigh injury while on international duty with Portugal U21s in September, and then his latest injury at Stamford Bridge. <\/p>\n

On a scale of 1\ufe0f\u20e3-\ud83d\udd1f how confident are you that Cole Palmer will stay at Chelsea? <\/p>\n

\"JohnPhoto by Jacques Feeney\/Offside\/Offside via Getty Images <\/p>\n

Chelsea<\/a> can count themselves lucky that Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Andrey Santos have been injury-free, as well as Romeo Lavia returning.<\/p>\n

But Essugo<\/a>\u2018s return will come as a big boost.<\/p>\n

Dario Essugo spotted in Chelsea training<\/p>\n

Ahead of the Arsenal clash on Sunday, Chelsea have been handed an unexpected boost with Dario Essugo seen in a training image on the club website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was originally believed that Essugo would be out for well over a month, which would have taken him into March, but the early signs appear to be good. <\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s no confirmation yet that he will be fit to face Arsenal or even back in the squad, but it\u2019s a positive sign ahead of a busy schedule. <\/p>\n

There will be matches from the Champions League<\/a> and the FA Cup to come in March.<\/p>\n

Should Chelsea be allowed to spend WHATEVER they want on transfers? <\/p>\n

UEFA and the Premier League’s rules don’t think so\u2026<\/p>\n

\"ChelseaPhoto by James Gill \u2013 Danehouse\/Getty Images Where does Dario Essugo fit in?<\/p>\n

Dario Essugo could represent the missing link for Liam Rosenior, primarily serving as the high-intensity defensive anchor Chelsea has lacked during recent late-game collapses. <\/p>\n

Since his \u00a318.5 million arrival from Sporting CP, Essugo has been viewed as the natural understudy and physical alternative to Moises Caicedo<\/a>. His role is to provide ball-winning capabilities and a disciplined positional sense that allows Chelsea\u2019s creative outlets, like Cole Palmer, to operate with total freedom.<\/p>\n

After a nightmare six-month layoff following thigh surgery and a subsequent training setback, Essugo\u2019s return to full training this week offers Rosenior a closer look, but he\u2019ll be cautious.<\/p>\n

While he has yet to make his official Premier League debut, his previous cameos during Chelsea\u2019s Club World Cup-winning campaign showed plenty of promise. <\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best Chelsea content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Chelsea have been handed a timely midfield boost ahead of their trip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[101618,59,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-444597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-dario-essugo","tag-gb","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}