The Pride of London
Fansided

Chelsea vs Villa: predicted XI, Young Lion starts, Felix dropped in 3-4-3

By Clovis Pereira

Mason Mount of Chelsea celebrates with teammates (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Mason Mount of Chelsea celebrates with teammates (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 4
Next
Chelsea
Carney Chukwuemeka of Aston Villa and Christian Pulisic of Chelsea (Photo by Visionhaus/Getty Images) /

Kai Havertz (No. 29) Right Winger, Germany

The silky German was in fine goal scoring form before he joined the International camp scoring in the last three Chelsea games. Although he was withdrawn from the camp halfway, it was only due to illness which he must’ve already recovered from. And will now hope to start against the Villans and extend his goal scoring run.

Raheem Sterling (No. 10) Left winger, England

Graham Potter confirmed that Raheem Sterling’s omission from the England squad was precautionary,

"“Raheem has a problem with his hamstring,” “It’s not too serious but he’ll miss the [match against Everton] and the international trip.”"

And the recent training dump featured Sterling, which means that the world class winger should be available for selection and starting him would be a no brainer.

Christian Pulisic (No. 10) False nine, United States of America

Excluding Joao Felix from the squad might sound outrageous for some, especially when there are reports suggesting that the Blues hope to sign him permanently which will cost a huge sum. Felix initially did look full of threat, however in the recent games, he has been disappointing overall. In spite of scoring a goal against Everton and a goal against Luxembourg on International duty, Felix has struggled to impact the passage of play, looking quite sluggish for most parts of the game.

Havertz has been exceptional in that role behind a striker and Potter would like to keep it that way. Sterling too looks more lively, which should give the duo an edge over the Portuguese International.

Graham Potter tried using Mykhailo Mudryk up front but it didn’t work particularly well with that role restricting him in many ways and it was evident that he functions much better on the wings. Christian Pulisic on the other hand, has decent experience playing in that role and should be comfortable starting there on the weekend after what was a very successful International campaign for the USMNT skipper.

light. Read. Chelsea players’ national team performances by the numbers

Will Chelsea build on their unbeaten run and get a result against Aston Villa?

Home/Chelsea FC Starting 11