Chelsea’s starting eleven to face Tottenham in the Carabao Cup this evening has been confirmed – and Willian’s on the bench.
Maurizio Sarri will have had a difficult few days deciding on his starting eleven. He tore into his players post-game after the loss to Arsenal, criticising their weak mentalities. He’s not wrong, but it showed that he has the cojones to tackle his squad head-on.
While Sarri’s starting eleven for tonight’s game is not to dissimilar to what we’ve seen before, he has opted to play Olivier Giroud and Pedro ahead of Willian. Could this be linked to what he said after Arsenal? The pair are leaders, while Willian doesn’t have that.
We’re also playing with a striker, which is significant considering Gonzalo Higuain arrived, but Callum Hudson-Odoi’s omission is really bizarre. He deserved to start this game and hasn’t featured since the previous Spurs game. Surely he’ll now push to leave?
That’ll be on Sarri if Hudson-Odoi does look to leave, but his first focus should be on winning this game. This team is certainly good enough to win it, especially with Tottenham’s injury problems, but can they do it? We’ll have to wait and see.
Team news is in! 🙌
Here’s how the Blues line up against Tottenham… #CHETOT pic.twitter.com/own55a2UWJ
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) January 24, 2019
#THFC: Gazzaniga, Aurier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen (C), Davies, Dier, Winks, Sissoko, Eriksen, Lamela, Llorente @WilliamHill odds (18+) – https://t.co/49uAJz16PP #COYS pic.twitter.com/5PbC6LTQzA
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 24, 2019
