Fans’ choice Chelsea lineup against Grimsby Town: Hudson-Odoi, James, Gilmour, Guehi to start

It’s academy game day at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea take on League Two side Grimsby Town in the third round of the Carabao Cup. Rotation is a given and Frank Lampard has already mentioned that several players on the fringes and those returning from injury will be getting some well-needed minutes.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

The WAGNH community have picked a good mixture of experience and youth to start today, with a back-four overwhelmingly preferred over any sort of back-three (12%) formation.

Billy Gilmour and Reece James provide Jorginho (29%) and César Azpilicueta (13%), respectively, with well deserved rests. Marc Guehi narrowly outranks Marcos Alonso (55%) and Ian Maatsen (41%), which means that Fikayo Tomori has to slot in at left back, which he’s certainly capable of doing (as is James and even Guehi himself).

Callum Hudson-Odoi, Christian Pulisic, and Reece James all garner over 90% in the voting, while Michy Batshuayi’s preferred to Olivier Giroud (33%) as many of the usual starters take a backseat. Tino Anjorin was a late addition to the ballot, finishing with 7%.

4-3-3 (44%)
Caballero (75%) | Tomori (62%), Guehi (58%), Zouma (79%), James (96%) | Kovačić (47%), Gilmour (79%), Barkley (84%) | Hudson-Odoi (91%), Batshuayi (64%), Pulisic (94%)

MY PREFERRED LINEUP

The only difference from the community voting is that I swapped out Alonso/Guehi for Maatsen, especially as Alonso will be needed while Emerson’s out for the next month with a hamstring injury.

I believe Lampard will be picking something very similar to this lineup as well, if not exactly this.

4-3-3
Caballero | Maatsen, Tomori, Zouma, James | Kovačić (c), Gilmour, Barkley | Hudson-Odoi, Batshuayi, Pulisic

COME ON, YOU BLUES!!!