Chelsea face Tottenham at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in just over an hour, and the teams are in!
We suspected that Enzo Maresca would do something funky, but while we predicted he would put Romeo Lavia into midfield, instead he’s put Reece James in there.
That means Robert Sanchez in goal, with Malo Gusto at right back and Marc Cucurella at left back. Wesley Fofana is in at centre back, alongside Trevoh Chalobah. Josh Acheampong, who has been so good recently, is benched.
James is in midfield alongside Moises Caicedo, with Enzo Fernandez playing ahead of them. As we predicted, the Marc Guiu up top experiment lasted just one game. Joao Pedro leads the line, flanked by Alejandro Garnacho and Pedro Neto.
This is probably not a team people are going to love – we all want Josh in the team, and we all prefer Reece James at right back, generally speaking. However, we can see why the coach has decided to add James’ immense physical and technical prowess to the middle of the pitch – and this setup does leave us the flexibility to be able to bring on another attacker and change shape if needed.
Of course – it’s also possible Gusto is the one in midfield, as we saw a few weeks ago. We’re all guessing until kick off.
Here are the full team line-ups for Tottenham vs Chelsea (kick off at 17:30 GMT)
CHELSEA:
Some players out there need big performances – Garnacho scored last week but has Jamie Gittens breathing down his neck. Joao Pedro has been desperately poor recent and needs a goal.
In other news…
Estevao isn’t starting today, but we’re sure we’ll see him in action later in the game. It’s a good chance to read up on a great interview about him and his early years.