Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Juventus: Back to the 3-4-3!

Chelsea’s toughest game of the Champions League group stage awaits and we will be hoping to bounce back immediately from defeat at the weekend. Chelsea have several injury concerns and will be without key players against Italian giants Juventus. Good thing they have had a terrible season so far.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

After an overly defensive showing in a 3-5-2 (17%), the WAGNH community are firmly back in the 3-4-3 camp, which got three out of every four votes. There’s even less debate at goalkeeper, with Édouard Mendy as the starter and Kepa Arrizabalaga (7%) as the backup.

It’s full strength at the back with Thiago Silva, Antonio Rüdiger and Andreas Christensen forming the core of defense; ahead of Trevoh Chalobah (29%) and Malang Sarr (1%). With Reece James out, César Azpilicueta is the clear choice at right wing-back, well ahead of Callum Hudson-Odoi (26%). On the left, Ben Chilwell edges out Marcos Alonso (43%).

N’Golo Kanté makes it into the preferred lineup, though we now know he will miss the game after testing positive for COVID-19. We also know that Jorginho (21%) isn’t having any concerns, though he was not the next highest vote-getter in midfield, Ruben Loftus-Cheek (45%) was! We finished Saturday’s game with him and Mateo Kovačić in midfield, for what it’s worth. Saúl Ñíguez (10%) and Ross Barkley (2%) weren’t in the conversation.

Two of the three starters up front as quite clear — Romelu Lukaku and Kai Havertz — while Timo Werner grabs the third spot just ahead of Hakim Ziyech (42%) by a few percentage points. Mason Mount (14%) and Christian Pulisic will miss the game through injury.

3-4-3 (75%)
Mendy (93%) | Rüdiger (97%), Silva (69%), Christensen (85%) | Chilwell (57%), Kanté (68%), Kovačić (78%), Azpilicueta (89%) | Werner (44%), Lukaku (97%), Havertz (84%)

MY PREFERRED CHOICE

Given Chelsea’s current injury crisis, there’s a lack of options to choose from and the lineup more or less picks itself. So I went with the same choices as the community with the sole exception of swapping N’Golo Kanté for Jorginho in light of the latest injury news.

COME ON, YOU BLUES!!!

3-4-3
Mendy | Rüdiger, Silva, Christensen | Chilwell, Kovačić, Jorginho, Azpilicueta | Werner, Lukaku, Havertz