Match day thread for the Champions League game at home to an old enemy, FC Barcelona.

Sanchez

James Fofana Chalobah Cucurella

Caicedo Santos Enzo

Estevao Garnacho

Pedro

Barca play a ridiculously high defensive line and attack regardless. Time to dust off the tactics -v- PSG.

It will likely be the lineup I posted but James in midfield for Santos and Gusto at RB.

Start Acheampong, don't care about the rest.

They are poor defensively, so we need to go at em from the start as we did against PSG.

BUT we are poor defensively too !!

Should be an entertaining game .

Chelsea to win 3-2

Come on you BLUES !! ..

They are poor defensively, so we need to go at em from the start as we did against PSG.

BUT we are poor defensively too !!

Should be an entertaining game .

Chelsea to win 3-2

Come on you BLUES !!

We are the one team in world football who are uniquely not placed to take advantage of Barcelona's suicidal high line.

The most obvious thing in the world would be to get Sanchez and the CBs playing long passes out wide to Garnacho or Estevao, but you just know Maresca will be having us tap it around at the back, especially at home.

So then, what does Marescas selections vs burnley tell us about this match?

Fofana rested for it? Probably.

Caicedo rested for it? Certainly.

Estevao rested for it? Hopefully.

We can be sure Gusto starts, which likely means Reece in midfield and Enzo in the 10, so probably Joao Pedro up top.

But would he leave Neto out? If he intends to put Neto on the left why leave our Garnacho today?

Perhaps it will be Estevao who misses out. I think he goes with:

Sanchez

Gusto

Fofana

Chalobah

Cucurella

James

Caicedo

Neto

Fernandez

Garnacho

Joao pedro

Fairly certain this is the team.

Sanchez

James Fofana Chalobah Cucurella

Gusto Caicedo Enzo

Estevao Garnacho

Pedro

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Fairly certain this is the team.

Sanchez

James Fofana Chalobah Cucurella

Gusto Caicedo Enzo

Estevao Garnacho

Pedro

Neto is one of his work horses. Against a big Opponents I don't see him dropping him.

Your line up makes sense with Estevao, Garnacho and Caicedo all fully rested today and James and gusto mostly rested though.

Think we'll line up in the usual 4-2-3-1 as follows :

Sanchez ; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella ; Caicedo, Fernandez ; Neto, Estevao, Garnacho ; Joao Pedro

I do not see him not starting gusto

What a contrast of feeling before two different games for me.

I am really looking forward to this game. Brings back such a variety of past match emotions and experiences.

A game that we live football for. A team that became a rival not because we exist in the same city or country even but one because their greatest ever side, and perhaps the greatest ever side period, hated playing us and shared battle scars with us. Where arguably the greatest player of my life time feared us and hated facing cech.

Win, lose or drew this game is what makes football great.

Whereas I would die a happy man if we never, ever have to face Arsenal again...

On 23/11/2025 at 07:23, axman2526 said:

Neto is one of his work horses. Against a big Opponents I don't see him dropping him.

I think he's resting Neto for Arsenal.

I would do it the other way around, Neto and Garnacho's raw pace would murder their suicidal high line, whereas Estevao's ability 1v1 is needed against Arsenal's deep defending

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I think he's resting Neto for Arsenal.

I would do it the other way around, Neto and Garnacho's raw pace would murder their suicidal high line, whereas Estevao's ability 1v1 is needed against Arsenal's deep defending

I may well be proved wrong on this but, with their being 4 full days to recover and train between this one and Arsenal, I don't see him resting anyone vs Barca that he wants to be key vs Arsenal.

Now for whoever it is we face the following midweek...that may be a very rotated team.

Match Day!

Come On Chelsea!!

GAMEDAY!! COME ON CHELS!!!

Been waiting for this match for a long time!

Just bad memories. I hate them all!

COME ON CHELS LET'S PAVE THEM!!!

My worry in these kind of games is Maresca sees them as a way to show just how much of a super dooper tactical genius he is, he does the "Pep" thing of changing stuff for the sake of it and ends up with a mess of a team.

This was genuinely one of the highlights of my childhood:

There should be minimal rotation between this match and Arsenal. Strongest XI out for both games and get some cohesion in the back line.

Play the strongest 11 today and Sunday. No rotation, let this lineup gel and then rotate minimally just one or two players at a time. That's what Maresca should be doing, but we all know that he'll rotate heavily today and Sunday and Wednesday and Saturday... and will put players out of position for the sake of looking "clever".

1 hour ago, PloKoon13 said:

This was genuinely one of the highlights of my childhood:

Damn, did this bring a lot of memories. This was the very first game I've seen in my life and the magician with 25 made me become a fan of this club.