Chelsea travel to the Etihad Stadium to face Premier League champions-elect Manchester City on Sunday, 21 May. Last Word on Sports tries to put together a Chelsea Predicted Lineup for their challenging clash against an in-form Citizens side.
Chelsea Predicted Lineup vs Manchester City
Heading towards Sunday. 👊 pic.twitter.com/KmswAq7Gcs
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) May 19, 2023
How Chelsea Have Lined-up Recently
Ever since he took over as the interim manager of Chelsea, Frank Lampard has experimented with different shapes and players at Chelsea. For the time being, only a few players like Thiago Silva, January signing Enzo Fernandez, Conor Gallagher and Raheem Sterling look like the ones who are guaranteed to start in every game.
Because of an injury crisis in the club, the Englishman will probably change up his lineup against City to go with a more defensive style from the Nottingham Forest game. Wesley Fofana, who was hailed as a ‘very special’ player by Gary Lineker earlier this season, should start the game and needs to put in a heroic performance to keep goal machine Erling Haaland & co quiet.
Chelsea Recent Form and Tactics
Chelsea’s recent form has summed up their poor season, as they’ve won just one out of their last five games in all competitions and faced an uphill battle to even finish in the upper half of the Premier League table at the end of the season.
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Lampard’s tactics have mostly changed depending on the situation for Chelsea. He’s mostly opted to make the Blues play a possession-heavy style and work their attacking moves through the wings. However, he could change things against Manchester City knowing how strong they are right now.
The Englishman should continue with his 4-3-3 formation, but ask the midfielders to sit deeper and not press as much – keeping things tight at the back to frustrate City. He’ll also look to urge the forwards to be clinical on the counter-attacks and quick with their swift breaks – but most importantly be defensively at their very best to survive the incoming onslaught from the Citizens.
Chelsea Key Players
In what is turning out to be their worst season in decades, Chelsea’s best players have been their defensive ones this time around. Thiago Silva is still going strong and he’ll need to be at his very best in cutting out City’s attacking chances and keep Haaland happy to give his side a fighting chance to get points from the game.
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Fernandez also needs to be compact and proactive in the middle, needing to put in clutch challenges and intercept City’s moves to frustrate them. Kepa Arrizabalaga needs to be swift in his goal and be ready to make a lot of saves, while Fofana also needs to be extremely proactive to maintain a strong structure at the back. Sterling appears to have rediscovered his form and needs to be ruthless in the final third to finish whatever chances Chelsea create, while Joao Felix also needs to be creative and clinical to trouble the City backline.
Chelsea Injuries to Consider
Lampard has ruled out seven players for this crunch games, which includes Ben Chilwell – who recently signed a new contract. The likes of Reece James, Mason Mount, N’Golo Kante, Marc Cucurella, Kalidou Koulibaly and Benoit Badiashile are also unavailable.
Chelsea Predicted Lineup
Kepa Arizzabalaga, Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Thiago Silva, Cesar Azpilicueta, Enzo Fernandez, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mateo Kovacic, Conor Gallagher, Raheem Sterling, Joao Felix
