Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea – Team News: Maresca leaves out key midfielder | OneFootball

Chelsea face Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge in just over an hour, and the teams are in!

This is perhaps the biggest lineup of Enzo Maresca’s time at Chelsea so far, and there were some big questions for him to answer. The Italian coach has regularly used Romeo Lavia since the Belgian’s most recent return from injury, consistently putting the midfielder in with Moises Caicedo switching to right back.

But today Maresca has decided to leave out Lavia and leave Caicedo in his best position, in the middle of the pitch.

That means Reece James, who made the crucial contribution in our last game with a cross for Marc Cucurella’s goal, plays at right back.

We really like Lavia and want him in the team, but we also want James and Caicedo in their best positions. It’s a tough call for Maresca, and over the summer he’s got to work out a way to get all these guys playing and performing at the same time.

Here are the full team line-ups for Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea (kick off at 15:00 GMT)

CHELSEA:

Chelsea’s team to face Nottingham Forest in a huge game at the City Ground.

Neto gets the nod leading the line

The other big issue in the team is up top, where Maresca has to replace the suspended Nicolas Jackson. He’s gone with Pedro Neto up top as a false 9, with Jadon Sancho and Noni Madueke supporting him.

It’s going to be a really long day for him – Forest have a really physical pair of centre backs who will look to bully him, and we’ve got to play to his strengths by slipping balls in behind them.

If we can’t get a supply line to the Portuguese going, we could really struggle to create chances, and in a hostile atmosphere it could get hairy.