Three things to look for in Chelsea vs Leeds United

3. What to do with Edouard Mendy?

The West Ham match was by some distance Edouard Mendy’s worst performance for Chelsea. The shocking decision that led to a penalty seemed to hurt his confidence for the rest of the match, and there’s probably an argument that a more confident and focused Mendy would have been on his toes to keep out Arthur Masuaku’s extremely weird winning goal.

Whatever mental state he was in after that match wouldn’t have been helped by Tuchel going with Arrizabalaga as the starting goalkeeper against Zenit on Tuesday, handing Mendy his first benching of this Champions League campaign. Add to that the fact that Arrizabalaga played excellently despite the defense hanging him out to dry multiple times, and you really have to wonder where Mendy’s head will be at this weekend, assuming he starts.

Oh, and it’s worth remembering that the African Cup of Nations is right around the corner, giving Mendy one extra distraction and Tuchel one extra reason to feed more minutes to the Spaniard to prepare for Mendy’s absence. After a year of absolute excellence, things have quickly hit the fan for the Senegalese.

As usual, all of this looks much worse when you’re mired in the throes of a downtick in form. Chelsea is still comfortably third in the league, cruised through to the Round of 16 in the Champions League and already picked up a trophy in the Super Cup. It’s been four rough matches in a row, only one of which was a loss. It needs addressing, sure, but getting players healthy and full of confidence is the salve here, Mendy being one of them.

Personally, I’d be a bit worried to see Mendy benched again versus Leeds. That has nothing to do with any concerns about Arrizabalaga, who has become a much better keeper during his time as Mendy’s understudy, but it has everything to do with managing the psychology of a player who plays one of the most psychologically demanding roles in sports. Despite its reputation, Leeds isn’t exactly scoring for fun at the moment, so this could be a good opportunity to get Mendy some minutes where he would need to be active but probably not under siege. A steadying performance on Saturday could have a lasting impact on how Mendy plays for the rest of the winter before he heads off for AFCON. Fingers crossed that Tuchel sees it the same way, and toes crossed that Mendy doesn’t come out and two-foot someone in the box again if he does play.

What are some of the things you’ll be looking for in the contest? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!