Fonseca set to back the Brits as Milan look for first win

Paulo Fonseca is without a win at AC Milan after three Serie A games in charge and the manager is set to give his side a British flavour when Venezia visit this weekend, with a trio of Londoners making up the spine of his team.

Defender Fikayo Tomori and midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek are the only outfield members of the squad to have played every minute of Milan's season so far, and forward Tammy Abraham came on as a substitute a day after arriving on loan from AS Roma.

All three came up through the ranks together at English side Chelsea, joining the youth academy as eight-year-olds around the same period. Loftus-Cheek and Abraham are both London natives while Tomori moved there as a child from Canada.

After several loan spells away from Chelsea, they all ended up signing for Serie A clubs. Tomori arrived at Milan in 2021 with Loftus-Cheek joining last season and Abraham began life in Italy at Roma.

Now back together again, the English trio have already been shown plenty of faith by the new Milan manager. Fonseca left Serbian Luka Jovic out of his Champions League squad, with Abraham set to battle with Alvaro Morata for a place up front.

Morata missed the last two games through injury and while the Spanish striker is well on the road to recovery, Fonseca is unlikely to risk him from the start against Venezia and Abraham looks set to get the nod.

Milan are five points adrift of Inter Milan and Juventus after draws with Torino and Lazio and defeat by Parma, but Saturday's game against Venezia, who have one point, is the perfect opportunity to bring Fonseca some respite.

Fonseca took the decision to leave both Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez on the bench at Lazio, but they were called upon, along with Abraham, when Milan fell