Chelsea fans’ preferred lineup against Nottingham Forest: The usual, please!

Silly Season is over; now it’s time for Serious Season.

Chelsea didn’t go too wild on Deadline Day, so the squad available for today’s game is pretty much as expected. The last major arrival was young Cole Palmer; he got around 20% as a speculative option from the WAGNH Community.

Given all that plus a tall glass of injuries, the lineup just about picks itself: eight of the ten non-goalkeepers got over 90%, while the goalkeeper himself, Robert Sánchez collected 89%. Conor Gallagher and Axel Disasi edge out Noni Madueke for the remaining two spots at around a 60-70% clip. All other outfield players came in at under 10%.

It was about a 60-40 split for a back-four versus a back-three, with the 4-2-3-1 the clear favorite, though still with less than half of the overall votes.

Putting that all together, we end up with three center backs in a back-four formation, but as Pochettino likes to say, it’s one formation for attacking, one for defending. Colwill has been playing that hybrid defender role on the left, with some success, pushing Chilwell further up on the wing. And right now it’s unclear if we intend to keep Gallagher in a deeper role when Enzo plays, or if we end up switching their roles.

THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE

4-2-3-1 (47%)
Sánchez (89%) | Colwill (92%), Silva (92%), Disasi (59%), Gusto (94%) | Enzo (99%), Caicedo (98%) | Chilwell (98%), Gallagher (70%), Sterling (99%) | Jackson (99%)