Chelsea’s team to face Leeds in the Carabao Cup tonight is out, and there are some interesting changes from manager Xabi Alonso.
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It’s time for the Carabao Cup midweek clash with Leeds we’ve all been looking forward to. This trophy is a big chance for Xabi Alonso to get his first silverware as Chelsea manager, and he went very strong with his selection in the last round against Luton.
Alonso plays strong team – but weaker side than faced Luton
Weirdly, the way it’s worked out is that this is a weaker team than the one that featured in the last round.
Mike Penders plays in goal, as we expect he will throughout this competition. The back three has Josh Acheampong, Maxence Lacrois and Levi Colwill returning.
At wing back we’ve got Pep Chavarria and Malo Gusto.
Central midfield featured both Reggie Watson and Valentin Barco, with both trying to prove they can be useful for Alonso’s first team. Then Estevao and Jamie Gittens are supporting striker Danny Welbeck.
The usual front three are all rested, but are all on the bench waiting their chance. Geovany Quenda will be disappointed to miss out, but surely sees most of the second half either as a wing back or as a winger.
In other news…
There are significant deviations here to what we predicted Alonso would put out.
David Ornstein was asked about an interesting conspiracy theory which has been doing the rounds – and made it sound pretty unlikely.
Dastan Satpayev has been brought back to Cobham to rehab a hamstring injury from his loan to Burnley – which is a real shame for him.
