Tuchel makes three changes, with £45m man dropped: Chelsea predicted XI vs Watford
Chelsea can immediately bounce back from their draw with Manchester United in their next Premier League fixture against Watford.
Thomas Tuchel’s men will make the relatively short trip to Vicarage Road on Wednesday evening, spurred on by the need for three points.
Manchester City and Liverpool are simply not giving up the chase, so all the impetus is on the Blues to keep the pace.
Watford has generally been a happy hunting ground for the Champions League holders; they won seven of their last eight meetings with the Hornets.
RONALDO NEEDS TO STOP WHINING.
Claudio Ranieri lost to one of his former clubs last weekend, a 4-2 defeat to Leicester City; will the same trick be repeated again tomorrow?
It is probably too soon to predict the result, but not the Chelsea line up.
Here is the next team we think Tuchel will decide upon:
Defence
Although Chelsea only played a few days ago and have a significant date with West Ham United on the horizon, we expect the Blues boss to only make three changes from his previous line-up.
The rear guard stays almost exactly the same.
Edouard Mendy, fresh from finishing second in the Yashin award pole, remains in goal.
Antonio Rudiger and Trevoh Chalobah also stay put in defence.
Despite his terrific display against Manchester United, Thiago Silva is rested, with one eye on the weightier West Ham match-up.
Andreas Christensen reclaims his spot in the side inplace of Silva.
Midfield
No tinkering needs to be done to the midfield.
Mainly because the options aren’t as vast as usual.
Mateo Kovacic, N’Golo Kante and Ben Chilwell’s injuries mean that Tuchel goes with the same quartet that tackled United.
Marcos Alonso and Reece James should keep their wing-back slots, whilst Jorginho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek partner up centrally.
Attack
Luckily for Tuchel, there is no such shortage of attacking players to call upon.
Sometimes this can be a burden, however, as he continues to uncover his perfect offensive combination.
We believe he will go for the trio of Callum Hudson-Odoi, Romelu Lukaku and Christian Pulisic.
Lukaku and Pulisic both came off the bench versus United, so anticipate them playing a more prominent role this time around.
In come the duo, out go Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner.
Werner’s latest performance left a lot to be desired, the £45m (Sky Sports) signing showing little reason to start him again.
Mendy; Rudiger, Christensen, Chalobah; Alonso, Jorginho, Loftus-Cheek, James; Hudson-Odoi, Lukaku, Pulisic
