Chelsea latest: including Kakuta and Rodrigo

John Terry is expected to start as captain for Chelsea’s match with Shakhtar Donetsk tomorrow. The defender, along with the other team captains around the European ties, will be asked to wear an anti-racism armband by UEFA to back their Unite Against Racism campaign. Roberto Di Matteo has said he has no plans to give Terry a break from football during his ban from domestic football. The Chelsea manager wants to move on and said:

"The board has made the final decision (to keep Terry as captain) and we can focus just on our football while keeping in mind that we have responsibilities to keep working towards a more respectful world."

Petr Cech has said it was nice to see Andre Villas-Boas again as Chelsea beat Spurs 4-2 at White Hart Lane. The keeper, who was excellent in the match, said whilst there may have been an added spice to the atmosphere, the players weren’t incentivised by facing their former boss. Cech also hailed the good starts Chelsea have made, and said he was looking forward to taking on Manchester United next weekend.

In transfer news, Chelsea have been linked with a move for Benfica striker Rodrigo. Even with Daniel Sturridge returning at the weekend the club currently has a shortage of senior strikers. The 21 year old scored 11 goals in 9 games for the Spanish U21 side, and would probably cost in the region of £15 million,

Another player that Chelsea may be interested in is Barcelona’s Sergio Busquets. There are reports he could be prised away from Barcelona for a fee of £24 million and could replace John Obi Mikel in the heart of Di Matteo’s new dynamic side. However Manchester City are also linked with the player, and a bidding war between the two richest clubs in the Premier League could see his fee rise.

On loan youngster Gael Kakuta has been criticised by the Vitesse manager Fred Rutten for his repeated late arrivals at training. Kakuta has yet to appear for the Dutch side, and was set to make his debut at the weekend, but arriving late to training for a third time meant he was left out of the squad.

image: © Crystian Cruz

Nick Harris

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I'm Nick Harris, Spurs fan and sports writer. Alongside HITC, I'm the founder, editor, writer, and fan of footballspirals.com and can be found on Twitter - @nicksharris. When I'm not watching sport I'm usually drinking coffee and checking updates on my phone in an antisocial manner.