Last night, Chelsea bowed out of the Carabao Cup at the semi-final stage, after a 1-0 defeat to rivals Arsenal on the night, and 4-2 across the two legs. 

As you would expect, a post-mortem has taken place within the fanbase and media, with several different opinions on why and how this was allowed to happen. 

One of the consensus reasons was the absence of captain Reece James, who was not even in the match-day squad, despite only coming on in the 81st minute during the win over West Ham United on Saturday evening.

Many had wondered if Liam Rosenior had completely rested his skipper, leading to criticism that he had chosen the biggest game of the season to do so. Nevertheless, the 41-year old confirmed after the game that James had missed out with a minor injury. 

Also missing from the game was Pedro Neto, who had a history of missing games before he joined Chelsea - but has generally been very good when it comes to availability since joining the club. 

Well, there is good news regarding both. Rosenior has said that the pair "should be absolutely fine" for the game against Wolverhampton Wanderers this coming weekend. 

It was a big shame not to have them for the much more important game last night, but it's good that they will not be missing any significant period of time. It does not feel disrespectful to say that James is surely the much bigger relief. 

That said, you know that Neto will be bang up for the game against his former club - every time he has played them since leaving, he has been booed mercilessly by the Wolves faithful, and did not hide his joy when finding the back of the net in the reverse fixture on November 8th. 

With Chelsea setting up in a 352 formation against Arsenal, you just cannot help but feel James would have been perfect. His Blues career really got going when playing as a wing-back under Thomas Tuchel, before all the injuries began to seriously stunt his progress. 

Ah well, what's done is done, and there's always another game around the corner. Rosenior's side will play three games in six days, starting from the trip to Wolves on Saturday, so plenty more of the rotation we have already seen under the new manager will be required.

It is certainly helpful that one of those games is against the worst team in the Premier League (albeit showing signs of life), and one against Championship side Hull City in the FA Cup fourth round. 

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