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Chelsea at Aston Villa predicted XI: 3-5-2 with the return of strikers

By Olaoluwa Nwobodo

LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 11: Thiago Silva of Chelsea blocks a shot from Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on September 11, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Eddie Keogh/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 11: Thiago Silva of Chelsea blocks a shot from Ollie Watkins of Aston Villa during the Premier League match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge on September 11, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Eddie Keogh/Getty Images) /
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Chelsea’s English defender Reece James celebrates scoring the winning penalty during the English League Cup third round football match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge in London on September 22, 2021. (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images)
Chelsea’s English defender Reece James celebrates scoring the winning penalty during the English League Cup third round football match between Chelsea and Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge in London on September 22, 2021. (Photo by BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images) /

Reece James (No. 24) Right wingback, England

The Reece-James-as-a-Central-Midfielder (RJaaCM) experiment was tainted by his central midfield partner not doing much of what the system needs a central midfielder to do. However, it was easy to take from the match that James did his job there. However, his influence at right wingback cannot be replaced, and his impact can only be truly felt from that position going forward. James has become one of the best right backs/right wingbacks in the world. Scoring, creating and defending in equal measures of brilliant.

Mateo Kovacic (No. 8) Central midfielder, Croatia

Tuchel is making sure he doesn’t rush the Croatian back from injury, no matter how much the Blues are missing his presence in the side. Chelsea has missed Mateo Kovacic’s decisiveness in the middle third. In fact, it was in the reverse fixture of this tie that Kovacic provided a sublime through pass to Romelu Lukaku for an assist, and single handedly dispossessed the Aston Villa goalkeeper to double Chelsea’s lead. Kovacic started against Brentford but came off at halftime, likely to preserve him for this fixture. Kovacic is one of the few players in the squad who’s services cannot be replaced from within the squad.

Jorginho (No. 5) Central midfielder, Italy

The ease with which Jorginho executes what looks to many as a simple job definitely fuels the disrespect he gets. The respect came when Chelsea deployed other players to play the same role and those players fall glaringly short. This is not to disrespect the players who tried and failed to execute his job as skillfully as Jorginho did, but just to highlight that it shouldn’t take learning lessons the hard way to see why managers select and talk about certain players the way they do.

Marcos Alonso (No. 3) Left wingback, Spain

Marcos Alonso was Chelsea’s best player against Brentford in the Carabao Cup quarterfinal match on Wednesday. His superb counter pressing when Chelsea lost the ball helps alleviate pressure from the surrounding players. Many fans don’t admit it, but Alonso is one of Chelsea’s most technically gifted players. The clear-cut chance he created for Christian Pulisic against Wolves showed that. He had one chance to get that first time through to Pulisic and he executed it perfectly, in stride. Chelsea doesn’t have many players that can do that in high pressure situations.

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