Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Brentford: Not much doubt as James returns

With the last international break finally over, Chelsea can now focus on finishing the season in style and securing Champions League football for the next year. There are luckily no new injuries so we should have a (nearly) full squad to pick from against our next opponents, Brentford.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

The WAGNH community keep things simple and stick with the regular picks in goal and for the formation. This means that Kepa Arrizabalaga (5%) once again plays second fiddle to Édouard Mendy. The same goes for the the 3-5-2 (10%) and the rest against the dominant 3-4-3.

There were some question marks about Thiago Silva’s (21%) availability and the community didn’t want to take any risks. This means that Antonio Rüdiger, Andreas Christensen and Trevoh Chalobah start in the back three; Malang Sarr (12%) plays back-up.

Mateo Kovačić and N’Golo Kanté pick up where they left off as they get the nod ahead of Jorginho (48%). It stays quite tough for the likes of Saúl Ñíguez (5%) and Ruben Loftus-Cheek (7%) to get a look. At wing-back, Marcos Alonso and a finally fit-again Reece James start, though César Azpilicueta (56%) does get reasonably close.

Kai Havertz kept up his goalscoring form on international duty as well, and he gets to keep that going against Brentford. He’ll be aided by Mason Mount and Hakim Ziyech on either side; Romelu Lukaku (24%) and Timo Werner (16%) didn’t get much of a sniff, while both Christian Pulisic (7%) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (15%) are ruled out of the game anyway.

3-4-3 (81%)
Mendy (95%) | Rüdiger (98%), Christensen (71%), Chalobah (68%) | Alonso (72%), Kovačić (78%), Kanté (69%), James (78%) | Mount (84%), Havertz (88%), Ziyech (77%)