Frank Lampard dropped a strong hint that goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga will return to Chelsea’s starting line-up tonight having been dropped for the club’s previous six matches.
The Blues’ head coach has a difficult balancing act given the need to freshen up his team on the one hand but also securing a result against the runaway Premier League leaders to keep their hopes of silverware alive.
Compounding that problem even further is an injury list including Andreas Christensen (knock), N’Golo Kante (adductor), Tammy Abraham (ankle), Christian Pulisic (adductor) and Callum Hudson-Odoi (hamstring).
At Bournemouth last weekend, Lampard persevered with three-man defence which made its return against Tottenham and Liverpool so it makes sense to assume that system will be used again, although it should be noted that Chelsea employed a back four in their two previous meetings with Jurgen Klopp’s side this season.
Michy Batshuayi scored in the win at Hull in the previous round and is expected to be drafted in to give Olivier Giroud a breather with Abraham’s return date still uncertain.
Chelsea possible (3-4-3): Kepa, Tomori, Rudiger, Zouma; James, Kovacic, Jorginho, Alonso; Willian, Batshuayi, Pedro.
