{"id":662976,"date":"2026-01-07T08:03:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=662976"},"modified":"2026-01-07T08:03:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T13:03:40","slug":"chelsea-team-news-predicted-lineup-fulham-december","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2026\/01\/07\/chelsea-team-news-predicted-lineup-fulham-december\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea Team News & Predicted Lineup vs Fulham for January 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Chelsea team news ahead of their West London derby with Fulham. This will also feature an attempt at predicting the lineup as new manager Liam Rosenior<\/a> will not be taking charge, meaning Calum McFarlane will once again be in charge on an interim basis. With some names expected back, it will be harder to predict what could change and what could remain the same after the draw with Manchester City.<\/p>\n

Chelsea Team News & Predicted Lineup vs Fulham<\/h2>\n

How Chelsea Have Lined Up Recently<\/h3>\n

Rob Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen have played in goal, Sanchez is the first choice but injury kept him out of the previous fixture. Malo Gusto, Benoit Badiashile, Trevoh Chalobah, Wes Fofana, Josh Acheampong, Jorrel Hato, and Reece James have all played in the back line recently.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>3 Chelsea Players Who Could Improve Under Liam Rosenior & 2 Who Might Not<\/a><\/p>\n

James has also played in midfield, where he can partner with Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, or Andrey Santos depending on the availability of other options. Enzo has moved forward as a number ten where Cole Palmer also operates. Estevao, Alejandro Garnacho, and Pedro Neto are the main winger options currently.<\/p>\n

Joao Pedro and Liam Delap have traded the striker spot depending on other availability and fitness.<\/p>\n

Chelsea Recent Form & Tactics<\/h3>\n

The Blues play in a 4-2-3-1 with a man to man press when the players are capable. The system usually focuses on keeping the ball, building up from the back and recycling possession in the other half including winning it back high with an aggressive press. Against the Cityzens, they were a bit more passive and counter-attacking with the right winger moving back to play as a right wing-back when out of possession to make a five in the back line.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Calum McFarlane Reacts to Dramatic Chelsea Draw and Explains Half Time Change<\/a><\/p>\n

With a poor run in the league that’s seen them keep just two clean sheets since the start of december with only one win coming in that stretch. The defensive lapses have seen them lose leads or go behind, making it a more difficult situation for the attackers to fire the team to wins. They’ll need a win soon to avoid being dragged into the mire around the 10th place where any win or loss can cause huge moves in the table.<\/p>\n

Chelsea Team News<\/h3>\n

There could be as many as seven players ruled out for this one in addition to some that may need to rest after playing just a few days ago in the league. According to PremierInjuries, McFarlane could be without Levi Colwill, Romeo Lavia, Dario Essugo, Mykhailo Mudryk, Cucucrella, Fofana, and Sanchez.<\/p>\n

Read More:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Chelsea Players to Wear the Number 4 Jersey Ever<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition, names like Acheampong, Gusto, Neto, Palmer, and Enzo have had a lot of minutes recently and could need to be rested.<\/p>\n

Chelsea Predicted Lineup<\/h3>\n

There’s a lot up in the air here with small issues and illness being hard to judge without being on the training field, so we’ll assume that the small injuries to Sanchez and Cucurella will be fit to go while Fofana’s illness will keep him out.<\/p>\n

GK – Rob Sanchez<\/p>\n

LB – Marc Cucurella<\/p>\n

CB – Benoit Badiashile<\/p>\n

CB – Trevoh Chalobah<\/p>\n

RB – Reece James<\/p>\n

DM – Moises Caicedo<\/p>\n

DM – Enzo Fernandez<\/p>\n

AM – Cole Palmer<\/p>\n

W – Alejandro Garnacho<\/p>\n

W – Pedro Neto<\/p>\n

ST – Liam Delap<\/p>\n

Featured Image Credit<\/strong><\/p>\n

IMAGO \/ Every Second Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the Chelsea team news ahead of their West London derby with Fulham. This will also feature an attempt at predicting the lineup as new manager Liam Rosenior will not be taking charge, meaning Calum McFarlane will once again be in charge on an interim basis. With some names expected back, it will be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2013,"featured_media":652515,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30,11,3,1831],"tags":[9640],"class_list":["post-662976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","category-starting-line-up","tag-chelsea-predicted-lineup"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663006,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662976\/revisions\/663006"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}