Under the lights at Stamford Bridge on a Friday evening, the Premier League is well and truly back!
Chelsea welcome league newcomers Luton Town to The Bridge after their triumphant achievement of gaining promotion from The Championship last season.
Chelsea have actually been drawn against Luton in the FA Cup in the last two seasons, and the first time happened to be Frank Lampard’s last game in charge at Chelsea during his first spell as boss. Chelsea won that game 3-1 but Lampard was still sacked right after. He made Mason Mount captain of the team for the very first time in that game as well.
Then Thomas Tuchel was in charge last time and it took 78th minute goal from that man Romelu Lukaku to win the game 3-2!
The last time Chelsea faced Luton before that was a 2-0 win in 1994, again in the FA Cup.
They did used to meet a lot in the old Division Two and Division One quite a bit and have met 47 occasions in total, with Chelsea winning 19 and losing 14. So historically, there isn’t too much in the head-to-head record between the two.
But on paper this is a MUCH stronger Chelsea team than Luton can put up, and there will be a big expectation of a Blues win on Friday night.
Luton have only played one game so far this season and that was a 4-1 defeat to a strong Brighton side.
Don’t get me wrong, they will be coming to Stamford Bridge full of belief and coming to get what they can. They will show no fear. They played quite open against Brighton though and I would expect they might have learned something from that and might be a bit more compact against us. But lets see how they setup.
They lined up in a 3-5-2 formation and really went for it against Brighton, but it left the game very open and they were super vulnerable at the back.
Mauricio Pochettino has some decisions to make and some injuries to contend with. I do hope he doesn’t set up in the same way he did against West Ham, with a back three that was more like a back four with Levi Colwill playing as a left back. If he is using wing-backs then I want to see them play AS wing-backs.
I think he might go for something like this, but it’s very hard to call.
I think Noni Madueke deserves the nod to replace Carney Chukwuemeka, and Moises Caicedo comes in to start over Conor Gallagher in a perfect opportunity for Caicedo to make his full debut. Mykhailo Mudryk is out injured with a minor injury so misses the game.
If they keep in this shape it will be a much better setup in my view. I really want to see Gusto more involved further forward rather than being restricted like he was against West Ham. Obviously I’d rather we played in a back four but I think that will come when Romeo Lavia is fully fit again. Lavia has not yet been training with the group due to getting his full fitness back.
Chelsea have more than enough to get two or three goals tomorrow night and get a convincing win under their belts. But of course, we need to be much better in front of goal than what we were against West Ham. I think we will see it. I feel like Jackson and Enzo are ready to come up with more goals, and Sterling is full of confidence and can find a goal in him. Madueke looked very lively when he came on against West Ham and is hungry. So I think we have more than enough to win by a good score on Friday night.
Lets go, UTC!!
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