Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Burnley: Havertz to start, Lukaku, too?

After a very close call saw Chelsea progress to the next round of the FA Cup, it’s now back to Premier League action and the good news is there are no new injuries. This can only help as the Blues take on a tough Burnley side that we all love to hate since that malicious tackle on Nemanja Matić all those years ago.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

Apart from one or two exceptions, the WAGNH community made all the expected choices. At goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga (1%) drops to the bench for Édouard Mendy while in terms of preferred formations, the 3-4-3 gains even more momentum than before — the 4-3-3 (7%) and 3-5-2 (9%) coming in well behind.

Antonio Rüdiger and Thiago Silva were two of the first names on the team sheet as well, with the latter receiving a near perfect 99% of the votes. The third spot at the back was up for grabs, with Malang Sarr (38%) splitting the votes with Trevoh Chalobah (34%) among the remaining center backs.

(Ed.note: however, neither of them finished among the top vote-getters, with Reece James thus dropping in instead and Christian Pulisic sliding in to right wing-back. Versatility! On the left, Marcos Alonso starts practically unopposed.)

In contrast, the midfield duo was as clear cut as it gets. N’Golo Kanté and Mateo Kovačić were firm favourites, with Jorginho (23%), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (16%) and goal-scorer Saúl Ñíguez (6%) all falling way short.

The attacking band sees Kai Havertz lead the voting, ahead of the aforementioned Pulisic as well as Mason Mount. Romelu Lukaku gets slightly less than half the votes, but still more than Timo Werner (38%) or Hakim Ziyech (14%) or Callum Hudson-Odoi (15%).

3-4-3 (74%)
Mendy (98%) | Rüdiger (98%), Silva (99%), James (94%) | Alonso (80%), Kovačić (88%), Kanté (81%), Pulisic (63%) | Havertz (85%), Lukaku (48%), Mount (63%)