Chelsea take on David Moyes’ West Ham United on Saturday at the London Stadium and Antonio Conte will be hoping that his team can leave the Atletico Madrid blues behind them and secure all three points against the Hammers.
Chelsea are currently third in the league table with 32 points – 11 points behind leaders Manchester City. With Pep Guardiola’s men in such fine form, it will be next to impossible for the Blues to close that gap down so Conte’s sole aim of the season will be trying to finish as close to the top as possible.
Hence we presume Conte will put forward a strong first XI during the West Ham vs Chelsea game:
GOALKEEPER:
Thibaut Courtois
DEFENCE:
Conte will go with his familiar 3-man defensive midfielder and since David Luiz is out with a knee injury so the manager will have the luxury of resting only one defender. And we feel that Gary Cahill will be the one who will be on the bench for the Hammers in order to make space for Antonio Rudiger in the back line along with Christensen and Caeser Azpilicueta.
Azpilicueta – Christensen – Rudiger
MIDFIELD:
Cesc Fabregas and N’Golo Kante will most certainly start in central midfield so that definitely is a no-brainer but we feel that this time around Danny Drinkwater is going to get the nod ahead of Bakayoko as the third midfielder. Bakayoko was easily the worst man on the pitch during the Atletico game and Conte will not be wanting to take any chances with him during a crunch Premier League match.
Victor Moses is back from injury and will most definitely start on Saturday along with Marcos Alonso who was a substitute during the midweek Champions League fixture.
Alonso – Kante – Fabregas – Drinkwater – Moses
ATTACK:
Alvaro Morata and Eden Hazard will start the game against the Hammers. While Morata will play up front as the lone striker, Eden Hazard will have the liberty to drift around the attacking half of the pitch.
Hazard – Morata
