Southampton predicted starting XI to face Chelsea | OneFootball

Southampton predicted starting XI to face Chelsea | OneFootball

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Football FanCast

·26 October 2021

Southampton predicted starting XI to face Chelsea

Article image:Southampton predicted starting XI to face Chelsea

After dropping two points against Burnley in the Premier League at the weekend in a 2-2 draw at St. Mary’s, Southampton are back in Carabao Cup action tonight, with a tough test against league leaders Chelsea at Stamford Bridge standing in the way of thhrm and the next stage of the tournament.

Ahead of the match against Thomas Tuchel’s side, Ralph Hasenhuttl revealed that Saints winger Mohamed Elyounoussi will miss the match in west London after being set to undergo surgery on his hand.


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Article image:Southampton predicted starting XI to face Chelsea

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Taking this into account, here’s how we feel Southampton will line up against Chelsea tonight.

Article image:Southampton predicted starting XI to face Chelsea

In goal, we think Hasenhuttl will give Alex McCarthy a rest and put Fraser Forster in, as he played in their previous Carabao Cup match against Sheffield United, to see if he can help the club continue further through the competition.

For the defence, at right-back, we can see the Austrian giving Valentino Livramento a rest after scoring against Burnley at the weekend and putting Yan Valery back into the side.

On the left, with Romain Perraud failing to impress against Sean Dyche’s side, we reckon it could be a good option for Hasenhuttl to take him out of the team and put Kyle Walker-Peters back in after not featuring in their previous two league games.

At centre-back, Lyanco might come in next to Mohammed Salisu to give Jan Bednarek a rest before their next Premier League match against Watford on Saturday.

In central midfield, we can see Hasenhuttl sticking with Oriol Romeu and Ibrahima Diallo considering that club captain James Ward-Prowse is still serving his three-game ban and Will Smallbone has yet to make a senior appearance for the Saints so far this season.

On the wings, we think the Saints boss will go for Stuart Armstrong and Nathan Redmond ahead of Theo Walcott, who is currently earning a weekly wage of £75k-per-week according to Spotrac, unimpressive against Burnley, with the injured Elyounoussi also dropping out.

Up top, with Hasenhuttl confirming that Armando Broja can’t play against his parent club, we think Che Adams and Adam Armstrong will come back into the team as Southampton’s main goalscoring threats to see if they can get past Chelsea’s stubborn defence, which has only conceded

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