After a polyphonic weekend in the FA Cup, the Premier League returns and Chelsea will be visiting reign champions Leicester City at King Power Stadium on Saturday evening.
The Blues suffered a heavy defeat losing 2-0 to London rivals Tottenham last time out, ending their 13-game winning streak with a poor performance in all circumstances. We picked ourselves up quickly though, as we cruised into an impressive 4-1 victory past League One side Peterborough on the third round of the FA Cup and are hungry for more!
Pedro was the man of the match against the Posh, scoring twice and assisting once, and will surely be earning himself a place in the starting line-up against the Foxes tomorrow night.
Let’s take a look at the rest of our predictions on Chelsea’s starting line-up for the upcoming fixture…
GOALKEEPER:
Asmir Begovic did well last weekend, pulling a few quite nice saves, but it’s almost certain that Thibaut Courtois will start as he’s fit and in a good form.
DEFENCE:
It’s quite unlikely for us to see any changes made in the back-three, despite the loss to Spurs and the return of young defenders Nathan Ake and Kurt Zouma. Antonio Conte will be putting his trust on these three amigos, who have done extremely well this season.
Cesar Azpilicueta is always consistent and a very trustworthy at the back, but David Luiz will have to step up his game from the Tottenham defeat. Gary Cahill did all right last time out, and will be captaining this one yet again.
MIDFIELD:
Conte today confirmed that Nathan Ake is being tested out in the left wing-back’s position, but it’s too early to believe that he’d be starting over Marcos Alonso – even though the Spaniard clearly wasn’t on his best against Spurs. Victor Moses took rest for the Peterborough clash, and will be resuming on the right-hand side.
It wasn’t his day against Spurs either for N’Golo Kante, but the return to King Power Stadium after signing from the Leicester this summer is a big thing for him, and he’s almost certain to start and make a huge statement for his previous side tomorrow. Nemanja Matic is a safe and secure option in midfield, with Cesc Fabregas to come on later should we go down by one or two – as always before.
ATTACK:
As mentioned before, Pedro went all the way back to his Barcelona prime against Peterborough, and surely deserves to start tomorrow. And after taking full 90 minutes of rest against the Posh with Michy Batshuayi playing the whole game upfront, Diego Costa returns to the starting line-up hoping to keep up his amazing goal scoring tally.
Regardless of a great performance from Willian as well in the very one-sided FA Cup tie, Eden Hazard is more likely to start on the left wing. He did brilliantly against the Foxes on the first half of the season when Chelsea won Claudio Ranieri’s side 3-0 at the Bridge, and is surely targeting a similar performance tomorrow.
Who do you think will be named in the Chelsea’s starting line-up against Leicester tomorrow?
