Moisés Caicedo omitted from Chelsea’s matchday squad against Arsenal

Chelsea’s £100 million midfielder Moisés Caicedo was left out of the matchday squad entirely for the club’s Premier League clash against Arsenal on September 6. Not on the bench, not a late substitute option. Just absent. For a player who cost what amounts to a small nation’s defense budget, that’s the kind of absence that gets noticed. It also marks the third time in the young season that Caicedo has been unavailable, raising real questions about whether recurring fitness problems will derail what was supposed to be a pivotal campaign under new manager Xabi Alonso. A pattern forming early Caicedo’s season has been stop-start from the very beginning. He missed Chelsea’s opening fixture against Fulham on August 24, with Alonso describing the issue at the time as a “minor setback.” He then sat out the Carabao Cup tie against Luton entirely. When he did finally feature, it was a cameo. Caicedo managed just 14 minutes in Chelsea’s thrilling 4-3 victory over Brighton on August 30 before being substituted due to discomfort. Ahead of the Arsenal match, Alonso indicated that Caicedo would face a late fitness test to determine his availability. The test apparently didn’t go well. His omissi...