What will Maresca's plan be without Cucurella and Fofana?
- Published
The accumulation of five yellow cards for defenders Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana rules them out of the match at Liverpool on Sunday.
This will cause a break in manager Enzo Maresca's steady team selections. He has picked the same side for the past two Premier League games, having also selected both Cucurella and Fofana as starters in every match so far.
The question for the Italian now is: who will come in to replace the duo?
At left-back, there are both Ben Chilwell and Renato Veiga.
Chilwell is firmly out of favour and has only appeared as a substitute against Barrow in the Carabao Cup. However, recent Portugal debutant Veiga is both in form and greatly in favour, excelling in the recent Conference League match at home against Gent.
Veiga is likely to get his second league start at Anfield, having been deployed in midfield at Bournemouth last month.
Fofana will also be difficult to replace as he brings physicality, speed and quality on the ball at centre-back.
A similar profile is Tosin Adarabioyo, who stepped in at West Ham last month when Chelsea were left without right-backs as Malo Gusto was briefly injured, joining captain Reece James on the sidelines.
There are also options to use Benoit Badiashile and Axel Disasi.
It will be an interesting team selection to kick off a difficult run of fixtures that will test the good early form the Blues have enjoyed this season.