Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Leicester City: Gilmour, James, Loftus-Cheek to return

With the FA Cup, Chelsea have a genuine chance of silverware this season with the FA Cup, but with games coming thick and fast, Frank Lampard will surely opt for some rotation against Leicester City in the quarterfinals.

But what about the fans preferences?

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

The brilliant win against Manchester City saw the 4-3-3 formation triumph and that only underlined the WAGNH community’s fondness for it. The 4-2-3-1 (25%) seems a distant memory at this point.

Despite this being just a cup match, Kepa Arrizabalaga keeps his place in goal, beating out Willy Caballero (25%) buy a 3-to-1 margin.

Rotation elsewhere sees Reece James return to the lineup at the expense of Marcos Alonso (32%) as the rest of the back four stays the same. Andreas Christensen’s impeccable showing on Thursday saw him retain his spot ahead of Kurt Zouma (62%) though it was an extremely close call between the two. Emerson (45%) is given yet another day off.

A bit more rotation in midfield, as Jorginho returns alongside Billy Gilmour, who just edges out Ruben Loftus-Cheek (55%). N’Golo Kanté (43%), Ross Barkley (15%), and Mason Mount (46%) are all afforded well-deserved rests.

Opportunities to impress in attack for a couple new faces as well, with Tammy Abraham getting the vote for his first start of Project Restart and Ruben Loftus-Cheek getting a do-over after his subpar debut last weekend. Christian Pulisic is undroppable and hopefully will provide Brendan Rodger’s men with enough trouble for Chelsea to win the tie. Recent goalscorers Willian (41%) and Olivier Giroud (13%) only make the bench alongside Pedro (50%), who could slot in for RLC if that experiment is over after the Villa game. Oh yeah, and Michy Batshuayi (3%) actually received votes; good for him.

4-3-3 (68%):
Arrizabalaga (75%) | Azpilicueta (51%), Rüdiger (72%), Christensen (63%), James (75%) | Kovačić (63%), Jorginho (60%), Gilmour (58%) | Loftus-Cheek (55%), Abraham (86%), Pulisic (64%)

PREFERRED LINEUP

Due to his rustiness the other week, I don’t think Loftus-Cheek should start here and I wholeheartedly agree with the community’s choices in midfield. At the back, I’d actually prefer seeing Zouma partner Christensen; I can see them being a good starting duo ... maybe? Up top, I made the same choices as the rest, outside of the RLC voting.

4-3-3:
Arrizabalaga | Azpilicueta, Zouma, Christensen, James | Kovačić, Jorginho, Gilmour | Pulisic, Abraham, Pedro

COME ON YOU BLUES!