Chelsea were on a 14-game unbeaten run but
that streak came to an abrupt halt this weekend when West Bromwich Albion beat
then 5-2 in the Premier League.
The loss was pretty humiliating enough since the Blues conceded
five goals at home but they will now look to redeem themselves when they face
FC Porto in the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.
This is an away game for Chelsea and they should be going into
this crunch match with pretty high hopes as they have kept a clean sheet in 6
of their last 8 matches in the Champions League. Also, the manager has only two
major injury concerns so Tuchel will have the luxury of choosing his best
starting line-up.
FC Porto are in a rich vein of form themselves as they have suffered
only two losses in their respective domestic league, picking up wins in each
one of their previous four matches.
The English side will go into this match as the favourites but
under Tuchel, they are not scoring too many goals so there’s a big chance that
Porto might stop them from picking up that crucial away goal.
Chelsea team news vs FC Porto:
Antonio Rudiger and Kepa Arrizabalaga
were involved in a training ground bust-up on Sunday and some rumours claim
Thomas Tuchel might choose to keep the centre-back out of the starting XI as a
form of punishment.
Edouard Mendy will start in goal so that position is sorted
but we don’t think the manager will take such a big risk of keeping Rudiger on
the bench since the German has been in pretty decent form over the past few
months.
Also, Thiago Silva had a howler vs West
Brom, picking up two yellow cards in the first half of the match so it’s not
likely that Tuchel will include him in the line-up on Wednesday.
Jorginho was another poor performer on Saturday but N’Golo
Kante is still recovering from a thigh injury and by the looks of it, he is not
going to be fit in time. If Kante is not available then the manager has no
other choice but to use the pairing of Jorginho and Kovacic in midfield.
Marcos Alonso will be replaced by Ben
Chilwell on the left-hand side while Callum Hudson-Odoi should also be coming
back into the side in place of Reece James.
Christian Pulisic picked up a slight hamstring niggle during
the weekend and it remains to be seen if he is fit in time or not.
Mason Mount came off the bench in the West Brom defeat but
the England international is a guaranteed starter in the final third alongside
Hakim Ziyech.
Timo Werner led the line in their
previous match but we think Olivier Giroud might be called back into the
starting line-up for the Porto game. Tammy Abraham is expected to be miss out
once again.
How Chelsea could line up vs Porto:
Predicted Starting XI(3-4-2-1):
Mendy; Rudiger, Christensen, Azpilicueta;
Jorginho/Kante, Mateo Kovacic, Chilwell, Hudson-Odoi; Hakim Ziyech, Mason
Mount, Olivier Giroud/Werner.
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