Carney Chukwuemeka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang should start when Chelsea and Manchester City face off in the FA Cup on Sunday.
Chelsea will look to reach the FA Cup fourth round when they lock horns with Manchester City at the Etihad in the third round on Sunday evening. And Graham Potter has a new fitness issue hampering his preparations ahead of his side’s latest fixture.
Edouard Mendy has sustained a fractured finger that has forced him to undergo surgery. Chelsea released a statement to confirm the injury, and the Senegalese goalkeeper will be unavailable for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, Potter did not convey any team news update during his pre-match press conference.
Instead, he talked about his desire to deliver trophies at Chelsea. Potter said, “We always want to try and compete for trophies, absolutely we do. In terms of how that gets measured, you have to take the season as it is and analyse it at the end of the campaign. We’re not halfway through the season yet, there’s still lots to play for.”
“We’ve got a game in a cup competition that of course we want to do well in. We want to go through, that’s for sure, and we want to compete. Obviously we have a difficult game in terms of playing Manchester City at their place but you saw from the other night, we matched them for large periods of the game and gave a pretty spirited performance. We need to do the same again today and try to improve.”
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Potter is down to his barebones, with several players on the sidelines. Apart from Mendy, Mason Mount, Recce James, N’Golo Kante, and Armando Broja are unavailable. In addition, Raheem Sterling and Christian Pulisic picked up knocks against Manchester City in the Premier League this week.
Kepa Arrizabalaga picks himself between the sticks in Mendy’s absence. And Chelsea will line up in a 4-3-3 formation in front of him, with Trevoh Chalobah replacing Thiago Silva in the backline. The young centre-back will join Kalidou Koulibaly in the central defensive unit, with Marc Cucurella and Cesar Azpilicueta being the two full-backs.
As for the midfield unit, Carney Chukwuemeka should earn his first start for Chelsea. And the young midfielder will likely join Jorginho and Denis Zakaria in the middle of the park. While Jorginho will sit at the base of the midfield, Zakaria and Chukwuemeka will provide defensive support.
Kai Havertz should continue to spearhead the attack against Manchester City. But the likely absence of Mount, Pulisic and Sterling means Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Hakim Ziyech become automatic picks for the Blues.
Predicted Chelsea XI: Kepa; Azpilicueta, Chalobah, Koulibaly, Cucurella; Chukwuemeka, Jorginho, Zakaria; Ziyech, Havertz, Aubameyang
