Andreas Christensen not seeking winter exit from Chelsea

Denmark international Andreas Christensen has said that he may not consider a fresh challenge from Chelsea in the New Year – despite the limited playing time since Maurizio Sarri took charge at the helm during the summer. Christensen made his Blues debut under the guidance of Antonio Conte last term and he went onto make 40 appearances across competitions including 27 in the English top-flight.

However, with the change in management, Christensen has yet to earn a single minute of league action under Sarri and this has constantly brought up the speculation of him leaving Stamford Bridge after the recent comments made from his father and agent. Despite this, the central defender has highlighted that he is prepared to fight for his position at the west London club while a winter departure may not be on the horizon.

He said: “It’s a difficult question. “If you asked every player that’s not playing if they’re happy they’ll say“ ‘no’. Everyone wants to play but you know I can’t do anything but train and do my best when I get the opportunity. I have to perform well to show him [Sarri] that he can count on me. You don’t want to sit around and wait for it you want to play straight away – that’s “why we play football“. Not playing is not fun but it is a different situation to last season. I don’t think so [leaving in January].”

Christensen’s gametime this season has reduced from Sarri picking an orthodox four-man backline rather than going with three central defenders. Other than that, David Luiz has returned back to contention alongside Antonio Rudiger at the heart of the backline and the pair appear untouchable at the moment, having started each of the club’s opening 12 Premier League matches. Christensen has been reduced to just six appearances for Chelsea this term and out of those, four have come in the Europa League with the remaining resulting from the League Cup matches.