Fans’ choice Chelsea lineup against Southampton: Hudson-Odoi, Kanté to start

For the second weekend in a row, Chelsea travel down south as they take on Ralph Hasenhüttl’s Southampton this time around. The Saints might find themselves just above the relegation zone at the moment, but they’ve had some impressive performances fall just short against the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham. In short, Frank Lampard will have to be cautious.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

The WAGNH community went with a 4-3-3 formation ahead of Lampard’s 3-4-2-1/3-4-1-2 (22%) against Lille and the previously favoured 4-2-3-1 (36%).

Otherwise, things weren’t as close; the now established back four continues to be preferred over the likes of Kurt Zouma (24%) and Reece James (50%), though injuries to Antonio Rüdiger and Emerson still limit the choices in this area.

Mateo Kovačić (44%) was somewhat unsurprisingly left out after N’Golo Kanté’s eagerly awaited return to fitness, but did still receive a reasonable amount of votes. Ross Barkley (5%), on the other hand, continues to be a rather unpopular choice within the community at the moment.

Up front, Tammy Abraham was given the nod ahead of Michy Batshuayi (3%) and Olivier Giroud (6%) yet again as the latter two remain on the fringes. Christian Pulisic (34%) did push Willian for a spot, but it ultimately wasn’t enough. Pedro (6%) had to deal with similar problems as Barkley.

4-3-3 (40%)

Arrizabalaga (99+%) | Alonso (88%), Tomori (96%), Christensen (82%), Azpilicueta (77%) | Mount (77%), Jorginho (91%), Kanté (89%) | Willian (58%), Abraham (92%), Hudson-Odoi (76%)

MY PREFERRED LINEUP

I’ve gone with more or less the same lineup as the community, though I did decide to prefer Kovačić over Willian, seeing Mount move up the field and onto the left-wing. Also, one can certainly make an argument for James, but I still went with Azpilicueta. Otherwise, this is undoubtedly Chelsea’s strongest lineup at the moment.

4-3-3

Arrizabalaga | Alonso, Tomori, Christensen, Azpilicueta (c) | Kovačić, Jorginho, Kanté | Hudson-Odoi, Abraham, Mount

COME ON, YOU BLUES!!!