Chelsea face Wolves at Stamford Bridge in just over an hour, and the teams are in! The big news is the return of Cole Palmer.
Here are the full team line-ups for Wolves vs Chelsea (kick off at 15:00 GMT)
CHELSEA:
Chelsea's team to face Wolves.
Chelsea’s team to face Wolves.
There are some things we expected, and some we didn’t. At the back, Wesley Fofana starts a second game in a week for the Blues. We had been told that wasn’t possible.
Then at right back, there is still no Reece James, whose mystery knock is clearly far more severe than we had been led to believe. He hasn’t played since he came on as a sub for ten minutes against West Ham a week ago.
In midfield, we predicted that Andrey Santos would keep his place alongside Moises Caicedo, and indeed he does. That means changes further forward – Palmer starts on the right wing, with Pedro Neto switched to the left.
Joao Pedro, still in hot form, starts up front, hoping to keep up his run of goals.
Overall it’s a strong side, and perhaps a preview of the setup we’re going to see in a lot of games for the rest of the season. Santos really seems to have established himself under Rosenior, as many of us predicted, and it will be interesting to see how this team functions in an attacking sense against a Wolves team who are bound to try and make things difficult.
In other news…
Liam Rosenior has defended Alejandro Garnacho after a poor first half performance last week, and we reckon he will try to give him some minutes today to allow him to recover
Our predicted XI for today’s game is out, and there are some interesting decisions for the manager to make. Our best guess is a strong team with rotation at the back.
More Stories about Cole Palmer
Cole Palmer in Chelsea warmups.
Andrey Santos comes on for Cole Palmer.
Cole Palmer celebrates scoring against Bournemouth.