After another nightmarish weekend, Chelsea returned to wins in the middle of the week by overcoming the Israeli side of Maccabi Tel-Aviv at Stamford Bridge. The Blues won their first match in the UEFA Champions League this season by 4-0 and have, in a way, put up a solid and pleasant overall performance.
José Mourinho performed a massive revolution in his team by fielding several new faces such as Baba Rahman and the 19-year English midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who by the way, had a night to remember.
The Portuguese manager seems to have finally put his foot down. Chelsea have been having an extremely negative season so far and some pundits were already questioning Mourinho’s ability to deal with such complicated situation.
The man that once re-baptized himself as the “Special One” has undoubtedly passed a strong message to his players and has now everything in his favour to secure a positive result next Saturday against their neighbours and rivals Arsenal.
José Mourinho has, nevertheless, a huge array of problems for next weekend’s derby, due the large amount of important players who are currently injured and will almost certainly lose the clash against the Gunners. Willian and Thibaut Courtois are definitely out, while Pedro Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao are still in doubt for the match.
That being said, this is Chelsea’s strongest possible lineup for their upcoming important match against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge next Saturday.
Goalkeeper
With Thibaut Courtois sidelined for a considerable period of time, Asmir Begovic is the owner of Chelsea’s net, at least until the return of the Belgian netminder. Begovic is a solid goalkeeper and he won’t certainly be the reason why the Blues will not be returning to wins at the English Premier League.
Defence
It will definitely be interesting to see if José Mourinho will field the same defensive quartet that played against Maccabi Tel-Aviv when Chelsea meet Arsenal next Saturday.
Zouma seems to own a place in the centre of defence and now is up to John Terry and Gary Cahill to battle for the other spot. The versatile full-back and Baba Rahman will probably remain the most likely option to assume the team’s full backs’ roles.
Midfield
Ruben Loftus-Cheek proved to be a reliable option last Wednesday against the Israeli side; nevertheless, in a fairly more demanding match such as the upcoming clash, the Serbian wall, Nemanja Matic, will probably return to his position in front of the defensive quartet.
Fàbregas, Oscar, Hazard and Ramires will probably be Mourinho’s remaining options for Chelsea’s midfield line next Saturday.
Forward
Diego Costa netted a superb goal against Maccabi Tel-Aviv and such will not only grant him a place in the team next weekend but it will certainly also be a massive boost of motivation for a player that is still far from being at his best.
(4-5-1)
