Jose Mourinho rules out Pedro and Remy from Champions League clash against Dynamo Kyiv

Jose Mourinho spoke ahead of Chelsea’s clash against Dynamo Kyiv

The Chelsea duo of Loic Remy and Pedro have been left back home in London as the squad travels to Ukraine to face Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League, the Mirror reported. The Blues’ boss Jose Mourinho insisted that it wasn’t anything serious but he did not want to risk the pair unnecessarily.

It was a good weekend for the defending Premier League champions as they came out victorious against Tim Sherwood’s Aston Villa on the weekend to go up to 11th in the standings. It’s not a position you associate with the London club but their poor start to the season has only won them 11 points from 9 games so far. They will aim to build on that by claiming another win in midweek against Dinamo.

Speaking ahead of the game, Mourinho said both Pedro and Remy have minor injuries that will keep them out of the tie. Quickly adding that it was nothing to get concerned over.

He said: “They have little injuries, both. Nothing really important, but not possible for tomorrow. Big risk for tomorrow. So no risk. We have other options. We have other players. Especially because they are in positions where we really have other options. So no risk.”

It will be a tie that Chelsea will really want to win having lost their previous outing against Porto in the Champions League. The Blues have won one and lost one so far and will hope to win this one to put them in a strong position in their group as they will then have 2 home matches and only 1 away fixture remaining at the halfway point in the group fixtures.

Dynamo are the current leaders of the group having won a fixture against Maccabi Tel-Aviv and drawing against Porto. Though the Portuguese team have the same number of points from 2 games, they are second on goal difference followed by Chelsea who have 3 points – one less than the leaders. Maccabi are the only team to have not registered any points in the group so far but will be hoping to do so when they face Porto, but it will be no easy task for them.

Chelsea also have a difficult road ahead of them after a less than perfect start. When Jose Mourinho was quizzed about what his side need at this moment gave a straightforward reply that his team need to get the points to make it into the next Champions League round.

He said: “Changing in results. We need to win matches in the Premier League to improve our position. We need to win points in the Champions League to qualify. So that's what we need. To improve the results.”