• April 23, 2022
• Olaoluwa Nwobodo

Chelsea potentially faces taking zero points from six against West Ham on Sunday as they welcome the Hammers to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea’s goalkeeper and defenders had a nightmare the last time they faced West Ham and they don’t look like they’re in a better place at this time. Chelsea has conceded 13 goals in their last five matches. They would have to pull off a cup final performance to get anything out of the West Ham game. Thomas Tuchel would be making sure that the players know just how important this game is, but who does he select to start this game.

Goalkeeper: Road to redemption for Mendy?

Mendy wasn’t actually horrendous against Arsenal though he was part of a bad situation. He does need to take responsibility for the fact that Arsenal took four shots on target and he did nothing to stop any of them from going in. Mendy carried the defense for a large part of the earlier part of the season and now it seems Tuchel’s trick to make the centerbacks better than they actually are, can only work for so long.

Defenders: More of Sarr and Silva. Does Chalobah start?

Tuchel has said that Antonio Rudiger would not be ready for the West Ham United game. This means that Thiago Silva likely starts, with Andreas Christensen at left centerback. Malang Sarr is lower down in the pecking order than Trevoh Chalobah so it’s likely that the latter starts at right centerback. No one in the backline would fill any Chelsea fan with confidence, seeing how the defense has performed recently. It’s difficult to determine if the defensive performances in recent games are a result of Tuchel’s inability to continue to hide the actual ability of the defenders (or lack thereof). Yes, Chelsea has played a lot of games recently, and at some point, fatigue begins to play a role. It’s more likely that other managers are beginning to figure out how to break Chelsea down.

Midfielders: Do something else

Whatever Tuchel tried to do against Arsenal did not work. Admittedly, Ruben Loftus-Cheek deserved to start because he was the only central midfielder that performed well against Crystal Palace. However, that is one game out of many that Loftus-Cheek has featured in. N’Golo Kante wasn’t impressive in the Arsenal game, neither was Loftus-Cheek. To be fair to Tuchel, many of the changes he tried in an attempt to change the game against Arsenal didn’t work. Jorginho is likely to come back into the fray, with Mateo Kovacic alongside him. it might be time to go back to the Jorginho-Kovacic double pivot.

Marcos Alonso and Reece James would return as wingbacks for obvious reasons. The wingbacks were more active defensively than the centerbacks. Cesar Azpilicueta was the one playing right wingback by the time the Arsenal game was over. Chelsea needs to figure out what their problem is or else things will be very embarrassing indeed on Sunday.

Forwards: Does Ziyech finally start?

Tuchel decided to start Romelu Lukaku against Arsenal and took him off not long after the second half started. Tuchel’s introduction of Kai Havertz into the Arsenal game was ultimately the wrong decision because there was nothing to suggest that Havertz was going to affect the game. Mason Mount looked tired against Crystal Palace and Arsenal so it stands to reason that Hakim Ziyech finally gets his first start in a long while.

Timo Werner has been Chelsea’s best player the last three times he has played and would get another start without a doubt. Havertz would be the man to complete the front three. He functions much better when he’s starting rather than when he comes on from the bench. This is going to be a difficult game and Chelsea’s attack would need to be on top of their game.

Prediction: Mendy, Chalobah, Silva, Christensen, James, Kovacic, Alonso, Ziyech, Havertz, Werner

Who do you think should start? Let us know in the comments and on Twitter.