A few weeks back both us and City have to travel for European matches. 

Fortunate favored us as we had the Tuesday game, them the wednesday one. These extra 24 hours made us look fresher than them in the fa cup, despite Pep making several changes.

Now it has swung back in their favour, while neither side travelled we have 24 hours less prep times and put in a real shift last night.

Hard one for TT to overcome imo. Does he go mass rotation for freshness or just make a few changes?

There is also the concern those thugs Fernadinho and Rodri will decide to take aim at our best players to give them further advantage for the final.

Imo we unfortunately have to serious consider leaving out Silva, Dave and Kante for this big game. The former two as they have played a lot and need the rest, the latter to protect him after one heck of a shift. While this makes us weaker I still think we can put out a good team.

 

Mendy

 

Christensen

Zouma

Zorro

 

James

Jorginho

Kovacic (Gilmour if not fit)

Chilwell

 

Mount

Werner

Pulisic

 

I would also consider Ziyech in for Mount depending on how much yesterday took out of him.

 

 

Like stated in another thread, I wonder if TT may thing of switching to a 4-3-3 just to keep Pep guessing for the formation in the final.

Actually hope we lose or draw, which is a mad thing to say when we’re still competing for top 4 but the last thing you want is Tuchel using every tool and trick in the book to beat them at this stage.

We’re normally involved in some shape when the league is decided - let’s hope this year is different. 

We should be rotating players because our squad is good enough and our players need to be protected for the remaining league games and cups. We wud have had only 2 days to recover so hopefully no injuries.

                        Mendy

      Azpi        Christensen     Zouma

James    Jorginhi    Kante     Alonso

     Ziyech       Havertz       Pulisic

We should be rotating players because our squad is good enough and our players need to be protected for the remaining league games and cups. We wud have had only 2 days to recover so hopefully no injuries.

                        Mendy

      Azpi        Christensen     Zouma

James    Jorginhi    Kante     Alonso

     Ziyech       Havertz       Pulisic

 

Just found out Anthony Taylor is the ref. i say we just send the kids and rest everyone...

7 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

We should be rotating players because our squad is good enough and our players need to be protected for the remaining league games and cups. We wud have had only 2 days to recover so hopefully no injuries.

                        Mendy

      Azpi        Christensen     Zouma

James    Jorginhi    Kante     Alonso

     Ziyech       Havertz       Pulisic

 

Just found out Anthony Taylor is the ref. i say we just send the kids and rest everyone...

Oh yeah if Taylor is ref nevermind send the under 21 team. 

Nevermind the reverse jinxing I am very serious. With that incompetent biased ar*e of a ref in change of us in a big match we have no hope at all as we will see that jack*ss swanning about like Mike Dean on Riods thinking he is big shot smiling whole he f*cks us over and loves every second of it.

We do need at least a point to keep our top four hopes solid, although I guess resting players makes sense here.

Hope Tuchel sends the team to the best recovery team in sports. Get them massages and ice baths and all that every week till the end of the month

 

This match is going to be pretty interesting to see how Pep and City line up and same for Tuchel and Chelsea. 

A possible dress rehearsal for the final. Though we need to rotate some players I feel. A point would do for me here.

 

mendy 

Azbi christensen zouma 

james Jorginho kante alonso 

Ziyech pulisic 

werner 

Speaking of the under 21s, I am pretty confident we could play them against Arsenal and get a result.

1 hour ago, mojo said:

Nailed on we get someone sent off and city get a pen with that tw@t in charge.

Surprised this is not a sunday game, the short turn around will hurt us more. They will want to win this, in the CL final and winning the title in the same week would be huge. I reckon we will setup like the first leg against Madrid, give City 67% possession and they will score a few

You know we are playing City in the final, they’re winning the league anyway does that mean we’re guaranteed CL spot, even if we lose?

A preview of the CL final but the problem for us is that Man City will win the league before the last games and we will still be forced to play our best players till the last match, maybe Pep rests some and keeps an ace in his sleeve for the CL final, not sure if we can do it as well here.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

You know we are playing City in the final, they’re winning the league anyway does that mean we’re guaranteed CL spot, even if we lose?

No

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

You know we are playing City in the final, they’re winning the league anyway does that mean we’re guaranteed CL spot, even if we lose?

No have a read of this it is explained pretty well

https://www.premierleague.com/european-qualification-explained#:~:text=If a club win the,for UEFA Champions League qualification.

Definitely rest players, some of our bench players should do just fine,I would settle for a drawn game.

Will be a tough game. Unfortunately I can’t see us getting 3 points. Would take a point. 

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

A preview of the CL final but the problem for us is that Man City will win the league before the last games and we will still be forced to play our best players till the last match, maybe Pep rests some and keeps an ace in his sleeve for the CL final, not sure if we can do it as well here.

Doesn't have to be a disadvantage imo.

Let's have Pep spend every minute of the next three weeks coming up with some magical way to screw it up while we keep our rhythm.

I love all these Saturday evening kick-offs, probably the only up-side of not having fans in the stadium. Traditional afternoon kick-offs only really make sense when you've got 40000+ fans needing to travel to/from the stadium. I'm really not looking forward to how much this is going to be hyped up as a 'dress rehearsal' for the CL final though.