Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Crystal Palace: Badiashile to make his debut!

Chelsea are beating teams to transfer targets in the January market — looking at you, Arsenal — but will these wins translate to wins on the pitch? Unfortunately, more players will be unavailable after the loss against Fulham. We really are living in dark times.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

After a good run as the choice of formation, the WAGNH community have started to question the 4-2-3-1, which is neck and neck with the 3-4-3 for this one, with both collecting roughly a third of the vote. The former does retain a slight edge in the end, and does fit better based on the individual players selected by the rest of the voting.

Kepa Arrizabalaga may have reverted back to his error-prone self but a lack of competition and Gabriel Slonina (14%) having just joined the group means that he continues in goal.

After disastrous displays by both Trevoh Chalobah (34%) and Kalidou Koulibaly (49%), new signing Benoît Badiashile gets he nod as Thiago Silva’s new defensive partner. Lewis Hall (48%) is an incredibly promising talent, but experience is favoured here so Marc Cucurella and César Azpilicueta start at full back.

Losing Denis Zakaria is a big blow and in response, the community throw caution to the win with a midfield pairing of Mason Mount and Mateo Kovačić. Conor Gallagher (46%) and Jorginho (50%) remain relegated to the bench due to their poor form.

The community continue to hope that Carney Chukwuemeka finally gets a deserved start as he’s been impressive every time he’s been on the field. He joins Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz in support of striker David Datro Fofana, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (26%) can only watch from the bench once more. Omari Hutchinson (17%) provides the necessary depth up front.

(Ed.note: we also had one write-in vote for ‘Tb’, which I presume means Todd Boehly, which is quite funny, and one for Jesus Christ. We certainly could use a bit of divine intervention.)

4-2-3-1 (31%)
Arrizabalaga (80%) | Cucurella (56%), Badiashile (67%), Silva (97%), Azpilicueta (68%) | Kovačić (90%), Mount (81%) | Chukwuemeka (72%), Havertz (63%), Ziyech (57%) | D.Fofana (64%)