This is the Chelsea team news and a predicted lineup for their first match since the departure of Enzo Maresca. With an interim coach in charge it is hard to know who will retain favour and who could be left out as the interim manager makes his own moves, we will likely see a similar setup but it’s impossible to know. We will be rounding up the recent injury news following Calum McFarlane’s pre-match press conference.
Chelsea Team News & Predicted Lineup vs Manchester City
How Chelsea Have Lined Up Recently
Robert Sanchez has been the first-choice goalkeeper for the team. The back line has featured Malo Gusto, Josh Acheampong, Benoit Badiashile, Wes Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella, and Reece James in recent outings. Some of the weirder decisions were forced by injuries with no available left-back, meaning some of the right-backs have played out of position.
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The preferred pivot appears to be Moises Caciedo and Enzo Fernandez with James and Andrey Santos capable of playing there. Alejandro Garnacho, Cole Palmer, and Pedro Neto seem to be the preferred trio behind the striker with Estevao and Jamie Gittens offering cavalry. Liam Delap and Joao Pedro are the usual striker options.
Chelsea Recent Form & Tactics
Under the previous manager, they were playing in a 4-2-3-1 base with different shapes in and out of possession. The Out of possession shape has been very poor recently, with the high press being bypassed easily by direct passes, as very little shielding was offered to the players behind the pivot. It was a system designed to control but like many of those, has some glaring weaknesses when the ball changes hands.
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Their recent form has been poor with just one league win in their past seven attempts, including dropping points to Leeds and Bournemouth who sit near the lower end of the table. Their defensive instability has reared its head once again as they have let in six goals in their last three fixtures with just two clean sheets kept across all competitions in December.
Chelsea Team News
There are seven different players who could miss out on this very big clash with Manchester City. PremierInjuries lists Cucurella, Jorrel Hato, Romeo Lavia, Levi Colwill, Dario Essugo, Mykhailo Mudryk, and the suspended Caicedo as absentees with only Cucurella in line to return as his status has been as vague as possible so far.
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The rest of the squad should be fit to start as they had a week off before the match with the Villans. Palmer is the only question mark as he is continuing to return to match fitness after a groin problem, everyone else will either have to play or has been rotated enough to be fit.
Chelsea Predicted Lineup
GK – Rob Sanchez
LB – Malo Gusto
CB – Wes Fofana
CB – Trevoh Chalobah
RB – Josh Acheampong
DM – Reece James
DM – Enzo Fernandez
W – Alejandro Garnacho
AM – Cole Palmer
W – Pedro Neto
ST – Joao Pedro
Featured Image Credit
IMAGO / Visionhaus