Chelsea have certainly endured a terrible season and while there has admittedly been very little for the fans to cheer about, the 3-0 defeat at the hands of Manchester City at Stamford Bridge last weekend would have been particularly crushing.
The manner of loss epitomized how far Chelsea have fallen during the current campaign and they have a lot of work ahead of them over the summer in order to get back to fighting for titles once again.
With four games remaining, manager Guus Hiddink will want to end the season on a positive note though and he will be urging the players to put in a much improved performance when Chelsea square off against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday.
Here is the strongest possible Chelsea lineup for the clash against Bournemouth –
Goalkeeper
Thibaut Courtois received a direct red card against City and now Asmir Begovic will be replacing the Belgian international in goal against Bournemouth.
Begovic has certainly done very well whenever he has been called upon and the Bosnian international will be hopeful of putting up a good showing on the day.
Defence
The Chelsea backline simply collapsed against City and while Hiddink may want to make changes, there are simply not enough options to choose from due to the injuries to John Terry and Kurt Zouma.
As a result, Gary Cahill, Branislav Ivanovic, Cesar Azpilicueta and Abdul Baba Rahman are expected to continue at the back but they will surely need to put in a much improved performance this weekend in order to avoid another embarrassment.
Midfield
Cesc Fabregas and John Obi Mikel did not enjoy the best of performances against City and there is a possibility that Hiddink will allow Nemanja Matic a chance to start in place of either of the two players.
Willian, Pedro and Ruben Loftus-Cheek look like the most probable attacking players to start from a midfield position and the trio will need to perform much better than they did against City in order for Chelsea to get back to winning ways.
Attack
Diego Costa will be hopeful of receiving more chances after a quiet outing last weekend, while the likes of Radamel Falcao, Alexandre Pato and Bertrand Traore provide the other options to choose from in attack for Hiddink.
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