Chelsea bid farewell to Christensen, Drinkwater among others

Premier League club Chelsea has submitted the lists of players from the 2021/22 season that they will be releasing from their squad.

Andreas Christensen, Danny Christensen, Charly Musonda, and Jake Clarke-Salter are the four players that are on the list of released players submitted to the Premier League. These are in addition to Antonio Rudiger, whose signing for Real Madrid was confirmed earlier this month.

Andreas Christensen's Chelsea contract expires this summer, bringing to an end his 10 years as a Blue, during which he graduated from Chelsea Academy and subsequently secured a regular place in senior squad, playing 161 games.

He would experience success in the FA Cup, Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup and, most memorably, the Champions League. He came off the bench in the first half of the final in Porto last year and was crucial to Chelsea's defensive efforts as the London club overcame Manchester City.

Christensen's final season would finish with Chelsea having won two pieces of silverware. He had played in both the Super Cup success over Villarreal and the dramatic extra-time victory over Palmeiras that secured Chelsea the Club World Cup for the first time in their history.

Danny Drinkwater will leave the club this summer as his Chelsea contract expires at the end of June. He has been with the Blues since 2017. Drinkwater signed from Leicester, where he had won the Premier League title alongside N'Golo Kante, making his debut in a League Cup win over Everton and scoring his only Chelsea goal in Chelsea's last match of 2017, as they thrashed Stoke City 5-0.

In total, Drinkwater made 23 appearances for Chelsea, in addition to time spent on loan in England and abroad, with his most recent competitive match for Chelsea coming in the 2018 Community Shield.

Attacking midfielder Charly Musonda is also at the end of his contract. The 25-year-old Belgian made seven men's first-team appearances, five as a substitute, and scored one goal.

Jake Clarke-Salter's 16-year association with the club has also come to an end. The Surrey-born defender is a graduate of Chelsea Academy, having progressed through the ranks from the Under-9 age group to make his senior debut at the age of 18 in a Premier League game away at Aston Villa in April 2016.