How should Chelsea line up against Zenit to begin Champions League campaign?

Chelsea’s Champions League campaign gets underway Tuesday night as we welcome Zenit St Petersburg to Stamford Bridge. Zenit are the defending Russian Premier League champions — have won the last three in fact — and are currently leading the league once again. They will not be pushovers.

With this game coming hot on the heels of Saturday’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa (barely 72 hours between whistles), Thomas Tuchel is likely to shuffle his deck once again. The likes of Mason Mount, Reece James, Jorginho, César Azpilicueta, Andreas Christensen didn’t start that game and are probably raring to go. Could we also see some minutes for the likes of Ben Chilwell and Ruben Loftus-Cheek?

Christian Pulisic and N’Golo Kanté missed the game over the weekend due to injury, and that’s likely to be the case here as well — certainly for Pulisic who’s set to miss upwards of a couple weeks. Kanté could be getting close to returning, though we will surely not rush him.

Choose wisely.

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