Chelsea going all in offensively against Chesterfield

Thomas Tuchel has absolutely no chill as Chelsea is going near full throttle against a team 90 places below them in the pyramid. This could have been a game to rest some key players ahead of a continuously grueling schedule. Tuchel has done that for some, but for others he’s challenging them to get the job done brutally and quickly.

Marcus Bettinelli is a not too unexpected surprise between the sticks. With Edouard Mendy gone for the Africa Cup of Nations, Kepa Arrizabalaga is taking up number one duties. That bumps Bettinelli up a notch, making him one of the rare third choice keepers to get an appearance for the Blues. Willy Caballero last season was the previous third choice keeper to feature. Before that one would have to go all the way back to 2011/2012 with Hilario. That may bode well for Chelsea’s Champions League chances come the end of the season.

Again, it looks as though it may be the 3-5-2/4-4-2 hybrid formation used against Tottenham. We’ll discuss it as though it is mainly a 4-4-2, starting with defenders Callum Hudson-Odoi, Andreas Christensen, Malang Sarr, and Lewis Hall. Hall is obviously the stand out as the lone youth representative in a game where several were expected. Don’t look for him or Hudson-Odoi to stay back very much though, as they are sure to be up the field often as the formation shifts around them.

The midfield “four” consists of Hakim Ziyech, Mateo Kovacic (captaining the side), Saul Niguez, and Christian Pulisic. Ziyech and Saul both get a chance to continue their renaissance of form as of late. Kovacic and Pulisic starting are head scratchers though. With as packed as the schedule is and as important as both seem to have become as of late, the expectation was that they would b rested. Hopefully the game can be as done and dusted as possible come halftime to make the adjustments necessary to spare them for later.

The dusters in that previous sentence have to be the duo of Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner. It has been a long time coming, but Tuchel can finally field the two strikers together more and more often. This is likely the best case for both players as both have had their best career runs of form with strike partners like their counterpart. Werner starting makes sense for match fitness purposes, but Lukaku starting seems to be more about building that bond between the pair. Ideally, they both score plenty of goals with time to spare for other players to give them a rest.

Simply put, this isn’t necessarily the lineup that should have been used but it is one that should get the job done quickly. Anything less would be surprising. Ideally, this team gets things done in the first half so key figures can get a rest going into more difficult matches. No offense to Chesterfield, but this team could have rotated completely and would have still been expected to win by a decent margin. The team Tuchel has chosen should win by something even larger than that if they don’t want to be the talk of the media for the next few weeks.