Chelsea: Maurizio Sarri puts the soul back in the XI with CHO, Christensen

Maurizio Sarri is aiming for the balance between a strong enough squad to defeat Tottenham and showing some love – or at least utility – towards the wantaways. Callum Hudson-Odoi and Andreas Christensen return to Chelsea’s XI, hopefully giving them reason to stay.

Perhaps Bayern Munich’s most recent offer for Callum Hudson-Odoi reached the threshold of jolting Chelsea into action. After Maurizio Sarri spoke yesterday about the importance of a team having a “soul” of academy-trained players, he put two of his three Cobham alum into the starting XI to face Tottenham

More likely than anything else, this matchday squad reflects the few options left to Sarri after the recent spate of injuries. Whatever the state of Willian’s recovery, Sarri deemed him healthy enough to not force his hand into playing a striker. Eden Hazard returns to the front as a somewhat false-nine, while Olivier Giroud represents true nines on the bench.

Alvaro Morata, despite scoring a brace in his last game, is not in the squad. The latest transfer rumours have him looking for a move to Sevilla. His exclusion from the squad may be about him exiting Sarri’s plans before he exits the squad as much as any tactical considerations.

Maurizio Sarri spoke about making some tactical changes in his pre-match press conference. His lineup does not point towards any formation-based tactical shifts.

However, Mateo Kovacic is starting on the bench in a game where Chelsea very much need his defensive abilities in midfield. N’Golo Kante could be spending more time in his traditional deep position. On the other hand, this game could reveal why Ross Barkley has been spending so much time dropping towards Jorginho’s line in recent weeks. Perhaps Sarri sees something in Barkley’s nascent defending that would be enough to blunt Tottenham’s midfield.

The defence, though, will not need as much additional protection from midfield thanks to Sarri’s most surprising move: Andreas Christensen for David Luiz. Luiz has had a hand in many of Tottenham’s recent goals against Chelsea. Tottenham knows to target Luiz, his marking, his zones, his positioning – the whole thing. While Christensen is not match-sharp or proficient this season and has a string of lapses stretching back to last season, he at least provides hope of a defensively solid performance.

This game on its own will not be enough to keep Christensen and Hudson-Odoi if they have already made their minds to go. It would be another classic Chelsea-Sarri moment if he finally started rotating his squad, resting some starters and including others at the point in the season when it is officially too late.