Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against West Ham: Pulisic-Havertz-Mount reunited!

After a brief existential crisis, football is back in full swagger with Chelsea taking on West Ham United. Nobody could’ve foreseen that this fixture would be a Champions League-deciding game at the start of the season, but here we are. Three points couldn’t be more crucial!

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

I feel like a broken record when talking about the formation and goalkeeper as the WAGNH community has proven time and time again that the 3-4-3 and Édouard Mendy are the obvious and preferred choices ahead of the 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 (7%/5%) and Kepa Arrizabalaga (8%), respectively.

At the back, Thiago Silva comes in for Andreas Christensen (47%), while the other two are pretty much set in stone, at Kurt Zouma’s expense. After a weird mid-game experiment on the left, Reece James starts at right wing-back ahead of Callum Hudson-Odoi (35%) while Ben Chilwell does so on the left ahead of Marcos Alonso (7%).

Mateo Kovačić sadly remains out with injury so Jorginho and N’Golo Kanté are the only real options yet again. At this rate, you’d expect Billy Gilmour (11%) to go on loan next season as the severe lack of game time is not exactly beneficial for his development.

The nowadays popular trio of Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz and Mason Mount are back together and start ahead of Hakim Ziyech (17%) and Timo Werner (42%), who have blown hot and cold recently. Tammy Abraham (16%) and Olivier Giroud (15%) get nowhere near enough votes to challenge the regulars.

3-4-3 (86%)
Mendy (91%) | Rüdiger (89%), Silva (58%), Azpilicueta (84%) | Chilwell (89%), Jorginho (83%), Kanté (95%), James (71%) | Pulisic (77%), Havertz (55%), Mount (91%)

MY PREFERRED CHOICE

Once again, I have no quarrel with the community’s preferences.

An argument could be made for Christensen instead of Silva due to the latter’s need of proper handling with his age, but if he’s deemed fit enough then that’s fine with me.

It can also be debated whether or not the front three have really been as effective as Tuchel would like them to be. The many cries for Abraham on social media rarely manifest themselves in the voting and seeing that he looks destined to leave at the end of the season I’m fine with giving Havertz more opportunities to find his groove.

3-4-3
Mendy | Rüdiger, Silva, Azpilicueta | Chilwell, Kanté, Jorginho, James | Pulisic, Havertz, Mount