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How Chelsea’s starting line up has evolved over the last four years

Frank Lampard Antonio Conte

Chelsea have had many ups and downs in recent seasons, but although there have been tough periods, we have always still managed to be winning silverware and staying up there with the challengers.

Frank Lampard came in last season and there was a real buzz and excitement that finally Chelsea are looking long-term and fully backing a young but inexperienced manager, who also happens to be a legend of the club.

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Lampard got Champions League qualification but also stuttered a little, as Maurizio Sarri and Antonio Conte did prior to that.

But Lampard has been fully backed by the board this summer, once again reiterating the fact that they see this as a long-term project to get Chelsea back where they belong, dominating the league and challenging in Europe.

We are starting to see such signs of this paying off this season, and I thought it would be interesting to look back at line ups from the last four years around the same time of the year as an interesting comparison of how far we have come since then.

Let’s head back to the 9th of December 2017. It was Antonio Conte’s second and final season in charge at the club, and we had just won the league the season before.

But things weren’t going so well this season, Chelsea lost 1-0 to West Ham on this day and here is the line up..

(3-5-1-1) – Courtois, Cahill, Christensen, Azpilicueta. Alonso, Bakayoko, Kante, Fabregas, Zappacosta. Hazard. Morata.

The following season saw Maurizio Sarri arrive for his short attempt of a Chelsea career. This season stuttered, and this was our line up for a 2-1 defeat to Wolves on the 5th of December 2018.

(4-3-3) – Kepa. Alonso, Christensen, Rudiger, Azpilicueta. Fabregas, Loftus-Cheek, Kante. Hazard, Morata, Willian.

Then Frank Lampard arrived at the club and expectations grew. This started very up and down, and on the 7th of December 2019 Chelsea lost 3-1 to Everton, the same team they face on Saturday. This is how Lampard lined up.

(4-2-3-1) – Kepa. Azpilicueta, Zouma, Christensen, James. Kante, Kovacic. Pulisic, Mount, Willian. Abraham.

Fast forward almost a year to the day, and this is how we expect Lampard to line up tomorrow.

(4-3-3) – Mendy, James, Zouma, Silva, Chilwell. Kante, Mount, Havertz. Pulisic, Werner, Giroud.

A massive difference of 5 starters from last seasons line up, and there would be 6 if Hakim Ziyech was fit.

Going back four years there is only N’Golo Kante who is still in Chelsea’s best starting line up now, and in Sarri’s line up it is exactly the same, just Kante.

It is an incredible transformation and as many fans knew, we really needed the club overhaul and the manager to be fully backed.

 

 

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