Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Manchester City: Kepa, Rüdiger nearly unanimous

Thomas Tuchel’s recent dalliance with a back-four to bamboozle Spurs has given the WAGNH community a slight pause as well when it came to selecting a formation for this game, though not nearly enough to dethrone the old faithful 3-4-3 (57%). The various formations with four-man defenses gathered up about 25% of the vote.

There was no pause of any kind in goal, with Kepa collecting all but 5 of the 1118 responses at the time of writing.

Antonio Rüdiger wasn’t far behind on the unanimity scales, with Thiago Silva also finishing at over 97%. Joining them in the back three would have been Andreas Christensen with 42%, though he’s since been ruled out due to a positive test. Malang Sarr would be next up at 27%. (Or perhaps Azpilicueta dropping and Pulisic going to right wing-back?)

Lacking for wing-back options, we have César Azpilicueta and Marcos Alonso joining the midfield line of four on either side of the Mateo Kovačić and N’Golo Kanté pairing. Jorginho finished with less than half the votes at 48%; no other midfielder finished with more than 4%.

Up front, the two clear picks from the community are Romelu Lukaku and Mason Mount, both with at least 80%, while the third spot goes to Kai Havertz, who just narrowly edges out Timo Werner. Christian Pulisic (40%), Callum Hudson-Odoi (25%), and Hakim Ziyech (17%) round out the voting.

3-4-3 (57%)
Arrizabalaga (99%+) | Rüdiger (99%+), Silva (97%), Christensen (42%) | Alonso (76%), Kovačić (76%), Kanté (93%), Azpilicueta (91%) | Havertz (48%), Lukaku (80%), Mount (81%)