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Football London
Football London
Sport
Oliver Harbord & Alan Smith

Ross Barkley out, Christian Pulisic in - How Frank Lampard should line up for Chelsea vs Ajax

Chelsea are back in Champions League action on Wednesday night when they make the trip to Amsterdam.

The Blues have back-to-back matches against Ajax in the competition, which is a big run of matches for the club if they want to qualify for the last 16.

Chelsea have three points from their first two games in Group H, however the Dutch side have a perfect record so far with two convincing victories.

Frank Lampard is still finding his feet in the top flight of European football, but the Blues are coming off the back of five wins in all competitions.

But how should the Blues line up against the Dutch side? football.london's writers have their say.

Oliver Harbord

Chelsea are on a bit of a roll right now with five wins in all competitions, and I wouldn't try to make too many changes from the side who beat Newcastle at the weekend.

One enforced change will be Mateo Kovacic in for Ross Barkley, and I'd stick with the 4-3-3 to try to keep things tight, but without N'Golo Kante if he is not fit, that will be tough.

Even though Christian Pulisic made a good impact off the bench, I would want him to do the same at the Johan Cruyff Arena.

It is such a big game for the Blues, they need at least a point from it, that I would eye up rotating his side against Burnley instead of in Amsterdam.

A point would certainly be a good result in the Netherlands, so keeping it compact will be the key against last season's Champions League semi-finalists.

Kepa; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Tomori, Alonso; Kovacic, Jorginho, Mount; Willian, Abraham, Hudson-Odoi.

Alan Smith

Presuming that N'Golo Kante will not feature, I'd go with a couple of changes from Saturday's win against Newcastle - bringing in two of the substitutes used.

Mateo Kovacic for Ross Barkley seems inevitable considering the England midfielder was injured in the first half but Christian Pulisic also did enough in his 25 minutes off the bench to start as part of the front three.

Although Willian had been in good form before the international break, he was frustrating against Newcastle.

The back four will likely stay the same, Jorginho and Tammy Abraham are guaranteed starters and Callum Hudson-Odoi was the star performer on Saturday so will retain his place.

Kepa; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Tomori, Alonso; Jorginho; Kovacic, Mount; Hudson-Odoi, Abraham, Pulisic.

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