Chelsea will meet up with a familiar face when they travel to the Liberty Stadium tomorrow night as Swansea manager Brendan Rodgers used to be part of the coaching staff at the Stamford Bridge club and has been doing a fine job of making a name for himself as a manager since moving on.
Andre Villas-Boas has confirmed that John Terry, Frank Lampard, John Obi Mikel and Brazilian midfielder Ramires will miss out, but both Lampard and Terry could be back for the game against Manchester United at the weekend.
Who would be in your Chelsea XI for the match against Swansea tomorrow night?
P. Cech (c)
B. Ivanovic – D. Luiz – G. Cahill – R. Bertrand
M. Essien – O. Romeu
J. Mata
D. Sturridge – F. Torres – F. Malouda
With Terry being out of action Gary Cahill is sure to make his debut for the club and I would personally love to see Ryan Bertrand given a chance in the starting XI, although we’re more than likely to stick with Ashley Cole who has looked woeful and has been run ragged this season.
There’s a distinct lack of creativity in the Blues’ midfield and I believe that Juan Mata would be far more influential if he was given the free-role behind the forwards and both Oriol Romeu and Michael Essien are perfectly capable to hold the midfield behind him.
Chelsea really need to pick up a winger (fingers crossed it’s Eden Hazard) and it doesn’t look like we’ll be signing one that’ll actually play a part this season as Kevin De Bruyne is to be loaned back to Genk. Unfortunately we’ll have to do with Florent Malouda for now and we may see better from him if he plays on the left and Mata in the midfield, rather than the other way around.
cech,ivanoic,ashley cole,david luiz,gary cahill,malouda,essien,meriles,mata,sturridge,torres. Sub:lukaku,romeu,bosingwa,ferrira