Tonight sees Chelsea take on Brentford at the Gtec Community Stadium in a 7:30pm kick-off.
Graham Potter’s side haven’t lost since he replaced Thomas Tuchel as Blues boss in early September and will want to extend that fine run to seven games with a sixth successive victory of his embryonic reign.
This a fixture which rarely ends in honours even, with the two teams having not drawn any of their last five matches against each other.
Injury News
In the words of Potter, who took to the pre-match press conference ahead of the Brentford clash, as per Football.London: “It’s as we were, no problems from the weekend.”
Despite this, Thiago Silva was mentioned in the presser as having felt a tightness in his hamstring in the weekend win over Aston Villa.
It’s a refreshingly positive update for Chelsea fans, who have lost the likes of Reece James, Wesley Fofana and N’Golo Kante in recent weeks, with the latter classed as a long-term omission from the squad.
Predicted XI
That brings us onto the predicted line-up to face Brentford tonight.
4-3-2-1
Kepa
Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Koulibaly, Cucurella
Jorginho, Loftus-Cheek, Gallagher
Mount, Pulisic
Aubameyang
Our predicted line-up sees Potter make five changes from the 2-0 win against Aston Villa.
In what is a slight tweak on the 4-2-3-1 system deployed in that game, we expect the Chelsea boss to utilise a 4-3-2-1 system in order to nullify the threat of Brentford, who will most likely line-up in a 4-3-3.
With a game against Manchester United at the weekend, Potter is expected to rest some of his key players tonight amidst a condensed fixture schedule.
As such, Silva makes way for Cesar Azpilicueta, who could slot in at right-back and allow Trevoh Chalobah to take up a role at right-centre back. The 23-year-old may form a partnership with Kalidou Koulibaly, who will come in for Ben Chilwell, allowing Marc Cucurella to switch to left-back, having functioned as a centre-back last time out.
Mateo Kovacic makes way for Jorginho, with both having had their minutes managed. Raheem Sterling could be set to sit this one out in favour of Conor Gallagher, who comes into a three-man Blues midfield, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek expected to be at the heart of the operation.
Despite coming off at half-time on Sunday, Kai Havertz is expected to sit this one out, with Christian Pulisic owed a runout after coming into some form against Wolves and then not featuring for two consecutive games, in what is the fifth and final change that we are anticipating.
