Maresca could infuriate Chelsea fans further by dropping Nkunku for a defender | OneFootball

We had debated all week about whether Enzo Maresca would risk Reece James at right back yesterday after two 90 minutes outings in a row, or whether he would risk Malo Gusto after the Frenchman picked up a knock on Thursday night.

When the teamsheets came out, the debate was revealed to be pointless – Gusto wasn’t fit, and James had got ill. The returning Wesley Fofana played at right back instead – and did really well.

Assuming that Maresca wants to move Fofana back into central defence alongside Levi Colwill, and assuming Gusto and James are both fit now (both of which are big assumptions), which way do we think the coach will go for the huge upcoming games with Arsenal and Spurs?

Thursday night’s game against Copenhagen is still very important and won’t be easy to navigate, especially after we conceded a frustrating goal late on last week – but it’s certainly a much lower priority than the Arsenal game to follow.

James could make midfield return for vital triple header

Could we see James reprise his midfield role against the Gunners, with Gusto at right back? The coach has enjoyed the extra security of the full back in there in recent games, and said openly that he sees the academy star as a proper option there.

Playing James with Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo would give us a very solid trio. The cost would likely be to Christopher Nkunku who would be dropped, with Pedro Neto leading the line and Cole Palmer moving to the right to mirror Jadon Sancho on the left.

That would be no great loss – Nkunku is barely contributing any more on the wing than he was up top. It would take a team that’s already pretty passive and remove yet another attacking option, infuriating fans further, but given Maresca would probably be pretty happy with the point against the Gunners and another against Spurs, it’s something we can imagine him doing.