Thibaut Courtois has revealed Chelsea still miss Nemanja Matic ahead of their meeting with Manchester United on Sunday.
Matic made the shock move to Manchester United over the summer in a £40m deal and Chelsea’s decision to strengthen a direct Premier League rival continues to baffle.
Chelsea have made a stuttering start to the defence of their Premier League title and Courtois has conceded that his side are still coming to terms with Matic’s absence in midfield.
“We know Nemanja’s qualities, he is someone who last year gave us the balance as well,” the London Evening Standard quote Courtois as saying after their 3-0 defeat to Roma on Tuesday.
“He decided to go to another team, so we won’t live in the past. Our midfield is very good, we have very strong players. But if you have two injuries in midfield, of course, you can say ‘yeah, we miss Nemanja’ because he is another quality player and he is doing well in Manchester.”
Matic has made a seamless transition into United’s midfield and has already established himself as one of their best players.
Chelsea will hope the Serbia international has an off day on Sunday when they welcome the 29-year-old back to Stamford Bridge for the first time since he left over the summer.
Only Abdoulaye Doucoure (51) has won possession in the middle third more times than Matic (49) in the Premier League this season.
