Rafael Benitez will be hoping that Gary Cahill (knee) and Ramires (Achilles) will be fit for selection after their recent knocks but he spoke positively about John Terry, who could start against the Saints along with Fernando Torres, as the duo were two of five players that didn’t go away on international duty.
Southampton manager Mauricio Pochettino is having a few selection problems as Adam Lallana, Jos Hooiveld and the hugely impressive Luke Shaw are all slight injury doubts ahead of the match, whilst Norwegian defender Vergard Forren awaits his debut.
Every game is a big game between now and the end of the season, but we’re going to have to make use of the squad we have as we will be tested by the congested fixture list so I’ll expect a few changes between Saturday and Sunday.
The team I’d play:
P. Cech
B. Ivanovic – J. Terry (c) – D. Luiz – R. Bertrand
J. Mikel – F. Lampard
V. Moses – F. Torres – E. Hazard
The team above should be strong enough to pose a threat and would give us the opportunity to rest a few of the older players that had to play two international games whilst giving the likes of Ramires and Cahill more time to recover.
We always have the likes of Juan Mata, Demba Ba, Oscar to call upon if we need them, and the likes of Marko Marin and Nathan Ake could prove to be useful subs to give someone a breather depending on how we things are going.