Chelsea face Newcastle at Stamford Bridge in just under an hour, and the teams are in!
We expected some changes from midweek given that suspensions are starting to kick in, and we’ve got them.
Most significantly of all is that Romeo Lavia keeps his place in the team having played well against Liverpool last week, meaning Enzo Fernandez doesn’t return. The Argentine has now effectively been relegated to the B team.
It’s the same story at the back, where Reece James keeps his place on the right, meaning Malo Gusto on the left and Marc Cucurella on the bench. Pedro Neto has completed his overtake of Jadon Sancho on the left hand side, and he starts there after coming on at half time last week.
This is a huge chance for him to lock down his place in attack, and he will be desperate to impress right from the start in front of the fans at Stamford Bridge.
Wesley Fofana returns from his suspension to play in defence – he’s now been weeks without a game, so we hope he’s not too rusty.
The quality of depth on the bench is fantastic, with all sorts of players not even able to get in the squad.
Here are the full team line-ups for Southampton vs Chelsea (kick off at 14:00 GMT)
CHELSEA:
Your Sunday team news is here. 🗞️👇#CFC | #CHENEW pic.twitter.com/0UCfmwN8jQ
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) October 27, 2024
The first goal is all important today. Get ahead of Newcastle and they will be forced to come out and play and we can hit them in the space they leave. If they get ahead, however, they can do the opposite and we may struggle to break them down. We need Nico Jackson and Noni Madueke to have their shooting boots on – Cole Palmer can’t do it all on his own.
