The mighty Chelsea are back in action this weekend, whether those words fill you with joy or despair!
But fear not, it’s only a friendly game whilst Graham Potter and the boys are out in Abu Dhabi warm weather training. We face Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
Many of us were pleased to have a break from watching Chelsea play football, and that is just natural based off how our season has been going so far. On Sunday, I am also pretty sure that we will enjoy watching Chelsea play as well, or at least I hope we will.
The result really shouldn’t matter, but the enjoyment part will hopefully come from being able to see some/many of our exciting young rising stars play for the first team. There is likely to be mixed line-ups from both teams on Sunday.
Let’s have a look at a predicted lineup now. Of course, it’s impossible to say whether Graham Potter will go for a full strength team, a team full of academy boys, or a mixture of both, but I am pulling more towards the latter.
This is my predicted (not preferred) Chelsea Xl vs Aston Villa:
This is based off the injured players not being rushed back in (maybe some off the bench), and those who have been in training so far. Obviously as it’s a friendly, I do expect to see many changes and maybe even a different 11 for each half, that is likely.
But this lineup gives a bit of experience alongside some top young talents, so I think we could see something like the above.
It would be nice to see some of our injured players get a small amount of minutes at the end if they are ready, just to give them a bit of a run out. But otherwise, I think we’ll see something like the above.
I do hope Potter goes this way rather than filling our starting Xl with his most experienced players. Even though it’s a friendly, people will be more focused on the result as always, which they shouldn’t be at this point, especially with many key players missing. This should be about match fitness and looking at some youngsters who could improve our squad right now.
It’ll be nice to see the lads back on the pitch to be honest, even though I have enjoyed a needed break from them!
