Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Arsenal: Kovačić, Tomori, Kanté to return

Chelsea face London rivals Arsenal for the second time in the last month and will be hoping that 3 points would help forget the humiliation against Newcastle over the weekend. There have been some injury concerns before the game, but it seems that Frank Lampard will be able to count on more or less an entirely healthy squad. But how did the community decide?

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

The WAGNH community preferred the 4-3-3 clearly enough over the other choices, with the 4-2-3-1 (34%) coming in as the second option and three-man defenses collecting a somewhat surprising 10% in third.

Kepa lost a fair amount of support thanks to his conceded goal on Saturday, but he clearly remains the first-choice choice at goalkeeper with the vast majority of voters. Only César Azpilicueta and Tammy Abraham received more votes overall.

It was a much closer call at center back as Andreas Christensen (50%) lost out by just a handful of votes to Fikayo Tomori, who thus partners Antonio Rüdiger ahead of Kurt Zouma (32%). With Reece James believed to be injured at the time of the vote, the community had no choice other than to go with Emerson and César Azpilicueta, though Tariq Lamptey also received a respectable 27%.

Ross Barkley received the same amount as young Tariq, and unsurprisingly lost out to the usually preferred trio of Jorginho, N’Golo Kanté, and Mateo Kovačić. Mason Mount (40%) didn’t have the best of games against Newcastle and paid the price with the voters.

No surprises up front either, as Willian, Callum Hudson-Odoi, and Tammy Abraham keep their spots. Fringe players Pedro (11%) and Michy Batshuayi (4%) are simply not the solution here.

4-2-3-1 (51%)
Arrizabalaga (88%) | Emerson (67%), Rüdiger (82%), Tomori (50%), Azpilicueta (94%) | Kovačić (85%), Jorginho (80%), Kanté (82%) | Willian (87%), Abraham (96%), Hudson-Odoi (80%)

MY PREFERRED LINEUP

As Reece James will most likely be fit for the game after all, he obviously starts for me and therefore I’m picking the same lineup I wanted to see against Newcastle. This means I’d once again like to see a centre-back partnership of Tomori and Christensen, especially after last game’s defensive frailties.

4-2-3-1

Arrizabalaga | Azpilicueta, Tomori, Christensen, James | Jorginho, Kovačić, Mount | Hudson-Odoi, Abraham, Willian

COME ON, YOU BLUES!!!