Five things to look for as Chelsea square off with Tottenham at Wembley

2. Chelsea midfield

We won’t avoid talking about the elephant in the room. There is only one fully fit first team midfielder available against Tottenham. While he may play like two players, his registration form only mentions one, which leaves us to ask “who is going to partner N’Golo Kante?”

This isn’t some Vanarama National League outfit, this is Spurs. They have Dembele, Dier and Wanyama, so needless to say, even the mighty N’Golo will need some strong muscle to back him up.

Unfortunately, ‘strong muscle to ward off Victor Wanyama’ is the antithesis of poor Kyle Scott. Don’t expect him to play.

This leaves Conte with one of our many (or not so many, thanks Gary Cahill) central defenders. David Luiz has a history of playing as a midfielder under Jose Mourinho and could do a decent job, especially with his passing abilities.

Andreas Christensen is, though, arguably the most versatile defender not named Cesar Azpilicueta and could do well in midfield. This appears to be the most likely scenario as Christensen (as shown by Conte starting Antonio Rudiger in the last game) is still learning to fit in the Conte back-three system.

Azpilicueta, meanwhile, was immense last season. The only times where his height, or lack thereof, was exploited was at White Hart Lane and then Wembley. Height is seemingly not required in the midfield as Fabregas isn’t that tall.

However, as mentioned earlier, Conte would want the back three to be tactically sound. Hence he will probably chose Christensen to play in the midfield over Azpilicueta as the latter has more experience than the former in the trio.

But will we actually play in a back three?