Chelsea vs Bournemouth – Major selection headache for Antonio Conte.

Chelsea take on Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge tonight without David Luiz, Alvaro Morata and Willian ruled out through injury and additional uncertainty over Michy Batshuayi. 

Tonight’s game is just as important as any other but the whole transfer deadline day scenario is far from ideal. Antonio Conte bemoaned the fact that teams have to play a game that within a few hours of the deadline, asking those that decide the fixtures to do something about it going forward.

As we know, Chelsea are being linked with the potential signing of Olivier Giroud this afternoon. If that deal gets completed, it’s almost certain that the side from North London will seal the signing of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with Borussia Dortmund keen to sign Michy Batshuayi on loan for the remainder of the season as his direct replacement.

One reliable source has already stated that The Batman was not part of the Chelsea squad that got together last night ahead of the game and is preparing to fly to Germany to complete his move by the 4pm deadline this afternoon.

So where does that leave Chelsea and Antonio Conte this evening? The injury to Willian is key here and could force his hand into starting Cesc Fabregas alongside Pedro and Eden Hazard in a false-nine formation.

Fabregas has just returned from injury and you would hope that he would be able to last the ninety minutes but as Antonio Conte has stated of Ross Barkley, our new signing still needs to learn our idea of football with and without the ball.

The good news for Chelsea is the return of Thibaut Courtois who is expected to return in goal in place of Willy Caballero who has done well deputising of late having made an excellent contribution.

I would expect that our back three will be as strong as possible with Cesar Azpilicueta, Andreas Christensen and Gary Cahill to start in front of our Belgian goalkeeper. New signing Emerson Palmieri has signed too late to be involved so Marcos Alonso will continue down our left-hand side with Victor Moses on the right. N’Golo Kante and Tiemoue Bakayoko will start in midfield with Fabregas, Pedro and Hazard in attack.

This really is a must win game for Chelsea tonight. Forget all the transfer deadline day stories, we need to focus on another important three points to keep the pressure on Manchester United above us.
Anything else would be a disaster.

Chelsea to win 3-0. Come on Chelsea!