Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Watford: Kepa remains; Rüdiger dropped

After the debacle that was Wednesday night’s 3-2 loss against West Ham, one would expect a few changes to the Chelsea starting lineup, even before considering that this will be our third match in seven days and the fifth in about two weeks. A bit of rotation surely needed.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

A two-thirds majority of the WAGNH Community’s sticking with the 4-3-3 as well as Kepa Arrizabalaga in goal. One does wonder whether a proper backup would garner more than the 28% Willy Caballero could scrape together.

In defense, Antonio Rüdiger (44%), one of the highest vote-getters for the previous match, pays the price for one of his worst displays in a Chelsea shirt, while Reece James ousts Marcos Alonso (44%) from full back consideration.

With Mateo Kovačić injured, Jorginho gets a belated call in midfield, with Mason Mount dropping back to fill the third spot ahead of Ruben Loftus-Cheek (24%), Ross Barkley (15%), and Billy Gilmour (9%).

In attack, Olivier Giroud’s restored as he continues to outperform Tammy Abraham (27%) on the pitch. Neither Callum Hudson-Odoi (15%) nor Pedro (7%) managed to make much of an impact, though they were nowhere near as forgotten as Michy Batshuayi (1%), who barely beat out fringe players from the Academy like Tino Anjorin and Armando Broja.

4-3-3 (66%):
Arrizabalaga (70%) | Azpilicueta (86%), Zouma (80%), Christensen (72%), James (58%) | Mount (74%), Jorginho (56%), Kanté (82%) | Pulisic (92%), Giroud (71%), Willian (78%)