This week all the first team players were given 4 days off by Jose Mourinho after clinching the Premier League title last Sunday.
This is another tactical masterpiece by Mourinho as one of Chelsea’s greatest weapons this season has been the attacking contribution from our full backs.
The fact that Chelsea have only used 22 players this season, which is the least number of players – shows how much some of these players need time off. The lack of rotation has affected players like Ivanovich who has started in every game, and we have been seeing fewer overlapping runs in our last 2 encounters from the Serbian.
With the title firmly in the bag resting our big players could be the tonic the senior players need to give a commanding display at home to a team with everything to play for. Jose would like to keep his home record intact and he needs his senior players to put in a big performance on Sunday when they face Liverpool.
There is talk of giving game time to the younger players, but in a match like this with the history between the two teams this is not the time to experiment when our home pride is at stake.
Expect Zouma to start at centre back because of Raheem Sterling’s pace, which means Cahill will be sitting this one out – Jose mentioned in an interview last week that Terry and Ivanovic have asked to play every game.
Remy is now fit and should start ahead of Drogba after 180 minutes of football last week from our Ivorian forward. Fillip Luis could also get a rare start ahead of Dave.
It would be great for Loftus Cheek to get a rare opportunity to start considering Ramires was not feeling well and got rushed to hospital last Sunday.
Cech could start this game, he has done well in the past and managed to keep a clean sheet in every game he played.
