Chelsea take on bottom of the table Southampton, and surely this is a game we need to be winning, regardless of circumstance and context — and perhaps especially because of circumstance and context, i.e. the terrible run of results we’ve been on for the past many weeks and months.
Graham Potter has opted to rotate his side given the exertions of Wednesday night, and there’s a first start for David Datro Fofana. We should expect any reasonable lineup combination to be able to earn three points today.
Here we go!
Chelsea starting lineup (4-2-3-1):
Arrizabalaga | Chilwell, Badiashile, Koulibaly, Azpilicueta (c) | Kovačić, Enzo | Mount, Félix, Madueke | D.Fofana
Substitutes from: Bettinelli, Chalobah, W.Fofana, Hall, Gallagher, Zakaria, Mudryk, Sterling, Havertz
Southampton starting XI:
Bazunu | Maitland-Niles, Bella-Kotchap, Bednarek, Perraud, Lavia, Ward-Prowse (c), Elyounoussi, S.Armstrong, Kamaldeen, Onuachu
Substitutes from: Caballero, Walker-Peters, Lyanco, Diallo, Alcaraz, Djenepo, Walcott, Mara, A.Armstrong
Date / Time: Saturday, February 18, 2023, 15.00 GMT; 10am EST; 8:30pm IST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: David Coote (on pitch); Robert Jones (VAR)
On TV: none (UK); none (USA); Star Sports Select HD1 (India); SuperSport MaXimo 1 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: none (UK); Peacock (USA); Hotstar (India); SuperSport GOtv (NGA)