Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against RB Salzburg: No surprises for the start of the Potter era

The beginning of a new era starts is upon us, and the first game under Graham Potter sees Chelsea take on Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League. After a terrible loss against Dinamo Zagreb last week, the Blues are already under pressure and need a win in order to get our European campaign back on track.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

We can only guess what preferences Graham Potter will have, but the WAGNH community are sticking with the 3-4-3 (45%) formation for now; the 3-5-2 (23%) and 4-3-3 (16%) come in second and third, respectively. Kepa Arrizabalaga (58%) gets a chance to shine in goal, and he may have been preferred even before Édouard Mendy (43%) was confirmed out with a knee injury.

Kalidou Koulibaly, Thiago Silva and Wesley Fofana may well be our strongest back line for ages, and so they unsurprisingly get the spots in the starting eleven; Trevoh Chalobah (15%) only plays back-up. At wing-back, Reece James lines up on the right as the leading vote-getter among all players, while Ben Chilwell retains his spot ahead of Marc Cucurella (52%) and César Azpilicueta (5%).

The midfield sees the trusted duo of Mateo Kovačić and Jorginho earn starts comfortably. Ruben Loftus-Cheek (16%) drops to the bench and joins Conor Gallagher (30%) and Denis Zakaria (31%) and Carney Chukwuemeka (4%), with the latter two still looking for their debuts.

Raheem Sterling and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang keep their spots up front while Mason Mount replaces Kai Havertz (44%). Christian Pulisic (29%) and Hakim Ziyech (12%) have new leases on life under Potter and will hopefully try to impress. The same goes for Armando Broja (28%), who has yet to start a game for us.

3-4-3 (45%)
Arrizabalaga (58%) | Koulibaly (76%), Silva (84%), Fofana (82%) | Chilwell (58%), Jorginho (45%), Kovačić (87%), James (98%) | Sterling (92%), Aubameyang (60%), Mount (56%)