Sports

EPL: How Chelsea Could Line Up Against Brighton Today

Published

3 years ago

October 29, 2022

How Chelsea Could Line Up Against Brighton

Chelsea travels to the Amex stadium this afternoon in a return to Premiere League clash against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Having secured a place in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, Chelsea’s task today is slightly more mundane one — though one that has all sorts of added intrigue in Graham Potter returning to the place he left less than two months ago to take the Chelsea job. Potter is as yet unbeaten in charge of the Blues, and I’m sure his old charges would love nothing more than to hand him his first defeat.

If Chelsea is to avoid that, not only will Potter have to contend with a team that knows him and his football better than his current players, but we have to contend with our own injury list, which may have gained a couple of concerns over the past week once again.

Given the array of injuries in defence for Chelsea at present, Graham Potter will be hopeful that Kalidou Koulibaly can recover from a slight knee issue for the trip to Brighton & Hove Albion which ruled him out of their Champions League tie with Red Bull Salzburg on Tuesday.

Central midfield options would become light if they were to lose Kovacic, considering that N’Golo Kante will be absent for a few months following hamstring surgery which ruled him out of the World Cup earlier this month.

Wesley Fofana and Reece James are another two players who will not feature for Chelsea until the New Year, but this has given opportunities to Cesar Azpilicueta and Trevoh Chalobah to come into the side.

Kepa Arrizabalaga has continued his revival in Chelsea colors, as Edouard Mendy remains on the bench while the Spanish goalkeeper flourishes in the starting lineup.

Kepa was agonizingly close to a sixth consecutive clean sheet last weekend before Casemiro’s last-gasp equalizer earned Manchester United a point at Stamford Bridge.

Potter gave Conor Gallagher a rare start on Tuesday in the number 10 role, but it would be no surprise to see Mason Mount return to the starting XI following his recent upturn in form domestically.