Predicted Chelsea line-up against Man City: Let's hope they're tired!

A week's passed since our 1-2 defeat at the hands of Manchester United and it's certainly been a long one. Normally, one expects a positive, strong reaction after a defeat to a direct rival that subsequently kicked us out of the top 4. The question is, though: will we be seeing one against arguably the best side in Europe at the moment?

City having played on Thursday might help but probably won't be too concerning for them due to their ridiculous amount of squad depth at this moment in time. One can nevertheless hope that it does, however. It might also influence the way Antonio Conte chooses to set up against the current Premier League leaders.

Coming to our potential line-up for tomorrow, I generally had a hard time deciding on a starting eleven as I'm not sure Antonio Conte's going to go with something we'd expect, though that's just a gut feeling. Ross Barkley has returned to the fray and will be in contention for Sunday's game. However, he'll be taking a seat on the bench (most likely instead of Hudson-Odoi), at best, as he starts getting back to match fitness once again.

With Bakayoko, Luiz, and Ampadu all out (the latter probably playing no part anyway), the defense and midfield pick themselves as the trusty back 3 of Dave, Rüdiger, and Christensen still seems to be our best viable option at the back. As Victor Moses has been starting both crucial games of late, he too will be retaining his spot at RWB, with Alonso doing the same on the other side. The Kante-Fabregas pairing also seems to be a given in combination with the attacking trio I've gone for, despite Danny Drinkwater's decent performance last week.

As the 3 (mini) musketeers worked up front against Barcelona, I believe choosing them against a Manchester City side that more or less plays similarly to the Spaniards would benefit us nicely. A 3-5-2 formation is certainly an option but seeing how Bakayoko is injured, as well as a 3 man midfield forcing Chelsea to bench our possibly best player of late in form of Willian, I doubt we'll be going with it.

My predicted line-up:

3-4-3: Courtois | Rüdiger, Christensen, Azpilicueta | Alonso, Kante, Fabregas, Moses | Pedro, Hazard, Willian

The WAGNH community’s preferred line-up arguably reflects the discontent regarding Morata's, let's say special Italian, performance last week as Giroud is preferred to both Chelsea's record signing and the likes of Pedro (Morata: 35%; Pedro: 11%). Otherwise, the line-up unsurprisingly chose itself.

Keep in mind: as the ability to vote was added a bit later by us this time it may very well be the case that the percentages might vary a little bit to the ones I'm currently looking at and copying down.

3-4-3 (67%): Courtois (91%) | Rüdiger (91%), Christensen (95%), Azpilicueta (98%) | Alonso (83%), Kante (99%), Fabregas (72%), Moses (67%) | Hazard (99%), Giroud (60%), Willian (93%)