Xabi Alonso said it was a "decision" to leave Enzo Fernandez out of Chelsea’s squad for the Carabao Cup tie against Luton Town, despite having said a day earlier that he expected the midfielder to be involved.

Fernandez has been strongly linked with a move to Manchester City this summer, and Enzo Maresca’s side are expected to return with an offer for the Argentina international after missing an informal deadline earlier this month.

Chelsea would consider selling Fernandez for a fee in the region of £120m, with the transfer window shutting next Tuesday. Manchester City’s midfield rebuild is still not complete even after spending around £200m on Elliot Anderson and Ayyoub Bouaddi.

Alonso picked a strong side to take on Luton, with both Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers included, but Fernandez was left out of the squad even though the new Chelsea manager had said on Wednesday that he expected him to be part of it.

"We assessed situations, individual and collective and we have decided he is not in the squad for today," Alonso told Sky Sports before the match against Luton, which is Chelsea’s first competitive home game of the new season.

Fernandez came off the bench for Chelsea in their Premier League opener at Fulham on Monday and was booed by the home supporters at Craven Cottage because of his role in Argentina’s World Cup semi-final victory over England.

Fernandez, however, received a relatively warm welcome from Chelsea fans when he came on, having earlier been booed during a friendly against Real Sociedad at Stamford Bridge before the season began.

When asked before the Luton game whether he wanted to keep Fernandez, Alonso said: "We want to have the best team possible. We know his qualities. He has shown it and we have to wait, but we will think about tomorrow and let's see how things develop."

Chelsea are also understood to be preparing another move for Bournemouth midfielder Alex Scott. Bournemouth have so far resisted all interest, but there is a belief that an offer above £80m, and probably closer to £90m, could make them reconsider.

However, Alonso did not want to say whether any sale of Fernandez would depend on Chelsea being able to bring in a replacement.

"It is always about understanding the context, the situation, timings, circumstances, so there is not a defined rule for everything," he said. "You need to know how things have worked, what you want, what you want for the future, so I don't have the rules in stone. We need to assess each situation."