Chelsea hypothetical predicted 4 – Gilmour and Kante – 3 -1 vs West Ham
By George Perry
Right attacking midfield: Willian
Frank Lampard has his fullest complement of wingers and attacking midfielders of the season, and he has the freedom to experiment and develop partnerships for the future. But he cannot or will not repeat the mistakes of earlier in the season and completely cast aside experience, and this means Willian – much to the distress of some ChelsTwit dead-enders – will start once again.
The other attacking midfielders will spend most of their game attacking and pressing, but neither are near Willian’s level for defending. Even with Kante and Gilmour in midfield, the Blues will need at least one attacking midfielder to cover diligently in transition and be ready to defend; and then be equally ready to counterattack.
Some day, Christian Pulisic and Callum Hudson-Odoi will do that. Until that day, Willian proves why he thinks he deserves a multi-year contract. It’s up to Pulisic and Hudson-Odoi to show the Blues can live without him.
Central attacking midfield: Mason Mount
The formation, the squad and the opponent are perfect for Mason Mount to push up from the nominal No. 10 position to be a shadow striker. His two most important roles in this game will be to make his normal runs between the lines to pull West Ham midfielders a few steps away from the defenders, and then to put himself and the ball into that space in support of the striker.
Oh by the way, did you know that Mount and West Ham’s Declan Rice remain best friends from the days together in Chelsea’s academy? No one’s mentioned that within the last few minutes.
Left attacking midfield: Christian Pulisic
This easily could have been Pedro, but Pulisic is healthy enough to play at least an hour, which means he has to, for his own future and for Chelsea’s. The real question is: will Pedro come on for Pulisic with 20-30 minutes remaining, or might Ruben Loftus-Cheek come on and start the competition for next season?
Striker: Olivier Giroud
Even in the world of what might have been, the starting striker position is still completely up in the air. Tammy Abraham is back from injury, and presumably would have had a strong international break with England. But Olivier Giroud – perhaps fired up by Karim Benzema’s recent comments (those happened in the parallel world, too) – carried his March club form over into his appearances with France, and is now arguably undroppable for both club and country.
West Ham are a Giroud-style opponent, and with Reece James and Cesar Azpilicueta sending in crosses and Mason Mount creating between the lines, Giroud could easily score a few classic Giroud goals, e.g., a header at the near post and a bizarre contortion in a scramble within 10 yards of the net.
Abraham will probably still play, as Giroud’s minutes over the last two months are cutting into his ability to go 90 minutes in a game. But as long as he stays as productive as he has been on and off the ball in those minutes, he’ll stay in the starting XI.
dark. Next. Seven Chelsea players who left too early: Felipe Luis, Begovic and others