Chelsea’s new goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga will be making his debut appearance for the Saturday Premier League match opener against Huddersfield at the John Smith Stadium.
Kepa completed his £71million move to Stamford Bridge shortly before the end of transfer deadline and Coach Maurizio Sarri wont waste time in making good use of him. He will play in place of Thibault Courtois who left for Real Madrid.
Latest signing Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante may not likely make an appearance leaving Cesc Fabrigas and Ross Barkley to start alongside £52million Jorginho.
Both players will need to put on a good show and impress with their best performance if they want to feature in Sarri’s first-eleven.
David Luiz is also expected to feature in Sarri’s 4-3-3 formation with Antonio Rudiger as his defensive partner while Marcos Alonso occupies the left-back and Cesar Azpilicueta controls the right-back for this season.
The front-line will feature Alvaro Morata but he will be under check following his poor performance in 2018, not forgetting his inability to net a goal during the pre-season. Morata needs to impress with a better performance in order to keep Olivier Giroud out of the team.
Young talent Callum Hudson-Obi impressed during the pre-season but will be side-lined during the start of the season.
Hazard should feature after the opening weekend and Sarri can thread cautiously when deploying his returning stars.
Sarri is expected to use the 4-3-3 formation: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger, David Luiz, Alonso, Jorginho, Ross Barkley, Cesc Fabregas, Willian, Alvaro Morata, Pedro.
However, the Blues is expected to make a better comeback after the poor performance of last season that resulted to them ending up in fifth place under the leadership of Antonio Conte.
