Chelsea news: Midfielder held by police over drunk driving incident after late-night party

What’s the story?

Chelsea midfielder Danny Drinkwater has reportedly been arrested for drink-driving offences after leaving a party early on Monday morning. Drinkwater apparently crashed his Range Rover into a Skoda, smashing a fence and leaving debris strewn across a country road.

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As per reports, Drinkwater, 29, attended a charity event with a “glamorous lawyer” Beth Mantel at an upmarket bar called Victors in Hale, Greater Manchester, around 6 miles away from the midfielder’s home.

The crash reportedly happened minutes after Drinkwater and Mantel left the party – around 12:30 am on Monday, and a source stated that “pieces of the car he hit went flying”. The same source also stated that Drinkwater had been “partying like mad” recently.

Cheshire Police stated that: “A 29-year-old man from Nether Alderley was arrested on suspicion of drink driving. He is currently in custody assisting officers with their inquiries.”

Drinkwater isn’t the first Premier League player to get into hot water over drink-driving this season as Tottenham’s Hugo Lloris was also charged with the offence in August and ended up pleading guilty, receiving a £50,000 fine and a 20-month driving ban.

The heart of the matter

This incident will hardly help Drinkwater’s cause at Chelsea; the former Leicester midfielder has been largely frozen out at Stamford Bridge since the arrival of Maurizio Sarri in the summer and he’s been reduced to just one appearance – as a substitute in the Community Shield match with Manchester City – this season.

Since his move to the club in September 2017, Drinkwater has appeared just 22 times for Chelsea, with only 12 of those coming in the Premier League, and his hopes of breaking into the England squad appear to have been dashed for good.

Drinkwater was rumoured to be on his way out of Stamford Bridge in both the summer and winter transfer windows, but reportedly, his £100,000-a-week wages meant that he was in no rush to leave the club.

Following this spate of bad publicity, Chelsea may well want to cut their ties with the former Leicester man for good. If the reports of his partying lifestyle are true, then he may well find it difficult to find a club willing to sign him – particularly as at 29 years old he’s probably inching towards the twilight of his career.

What’s next?

Drinkwater was not in the squad for Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over West Ham last night and it’d be a massive stunner to see him named in the squad for their upcoming matches with Slavia Prague and Liverpool.

For their part, the club have stated, “We are aware of reports but we will want to establish all of the facts before commenting.”