The mighty Chelsea are back in action this weekend, whether those words fill you with joy or despair.
But fear not, it’s just a friendly game while Graham Potter and the lads are training in Abu Dhabi in the warm weather. We face Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon.
Many of us were pleased to get a break from watching Chelsea play football, and that’s only natural based on how our season has gone so far. On Sunday, I’m also pretty sure we’ll enjoy watching Chelsea play, or at least I hope we will.
The result shouldn’t really matter, but part of the pleasure will come from being able to see some/many of our exciting young rising stars play for the first team. There are likely to be mixed lineups from both teams on Sunday.
Let’s take a look at a planned lineup now. Of course, it’s impossible to say whether Graham Potter will go with a full team, a team full of academy kids, or a mix of both, but I’m leaning more towards the latter.
This is my prediction (not preferred) Chelsea Xl vs Aston Villa:
This is based on injured players not rushing back (maybe some from the bench) and those who have been training so far. Obviously, as it’s a friendly, I expect to see a lot of changes and maybe even 11 different ones for each half, that’s likely.
But this lineup brings a bit of experience along with some of the best young talent, 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’re ready, only to have them burn out a bit. But otherwise, I think we’ll see something like the above.
I hope Potter goes down this path instead of filling our starting Xl with their more experienced players. Even though it’s a friendly, people will be more focused on the result as usual, which they shouldn’t be at the moment, especially with many key players missing. It should be about the physical preparation for the game and looking at some youngsters who could improve our team at the moment.
To be honest it will be good to see the lads back on the pitch, although I have enjoyed a much needed break from them!
