Chelsea vs Ipswich – Team News: Maresca makes one decision we’re not sure about | OneFootball

Chelsea face Ipswich at Stamford Bridge in just over an hour, and the teams are in!

The Blues got one of their worst results of the season in the reverse fixture, and there’s a huge amount of pressure to get things right this time as they battle for a top 5 place. Teams all around us have dropped points or face each other later in the weekend, so this is a massive opportunity against a weak side who are about to be sent down to the Championship.

After some slightly odd changes to the team which played last weekend, Enzo Maresca had a fully fit group to play today, and he’s brought out the big guns.

It’s largely as we expected – Robert Sanchez in goal, a front 3 of Nicolas Jackson, Pedro Neto, Noni Madueke.

Cole Palmer plays in the hole, behind the fresh and rested duo of Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez.

The defence is the only place where there’s a change we didn’t see coming (or in fact did see coming, but didn’t want to see). It looks like Trevoh Chalobah will play at right back, with Tosin in the middle with Levi Colwill. Marc Cucurella plays at left back, as per usual.

This was predictable in that Reece James started in midweek, but we’d still far rather have seen James playing right back today than in midfield against Legia. Enzo Maresca would probably argue that it was just a question of making sure that the other central midfielders were rested. In return we would have said – why not play one of the superb academy kids, or Mathis Amougou?

In any case, we should be able to win this one without James starting. There’s more than enough firepower in this lineup to earn an easy win.

Here are the full team line-ups for Chelsea vs Ipswich (kick off at 14:00 GMT)

CHELSEA:

Chelsea Ipswich lineup.