Chelsea take on Arsenal in Orlando, Florida for the Florida Cup final on Saturday night or early Sunday morning depending on where you live. It is the final pre-season friendly for Chelsea before they head back to London but it is against Arsenal and the winning team ends up getting a trophy. This will be Arsenal’s fifth pre-season friendly, they have won the other four by an aggregate score of 15-5.
Arsenal have been busy in the market bringing in the likes of Fabio Vieira, Gabriel Jesus and most recently Oleksandr Zinchenko. Zinchenko probably won’t feature but Jesus has been doing well in pre-season and William Saliba has also impressed as a centre back. Arsenal have had a good few games and there is plenty of positivity around their team at the moment. Jesus has been a great change of pace for the Gunners considering the immobile and one dimensional forward that Lacazette was. The Gunners will want to remain unbeaten in the United States but Chelsea will have other plans.
Chelsea fans go into this game with the Koundé saga dragging on. At the time of writing this preview everyone bar Gerard Romero is saying that Chelsea is Koundé’s destination. Hopefully we get a confirmation before the game so fans can actually enjoy it. The game against Charlotte was decent but the team once again showed it’s lack of finishing and decision making in the final third. Considering this is our third friendly and final one in the US, I expect Tuchel to field a stronger lineup. We only have one more friendly against Udinese before we travel to Liverpool to play Everton in our first game.
Chelsea Team Preview
It seems like Kepa and Ross Barkley remain out. Edouard Mendy should start in goal with a back three of Chalobah, Silva, and Koulibaly. I do expect Koulibaly to make his debut or he could come off the bench in the second half. A midfield two of Kovacic, and Jorginho with Reece James and Ben Chilwell as the wing-backs. Mount, Sterling and Havertz leading the line. This is what I believe our best possible lineup is if Tuchel continues to stick with the back three. It would be great if he could surprise and and play a four with Ampadu as a holding midfielder and Mount in midfield but I’m not counting on it. Tuchel will probably give some players more than 45 minutes to ramp up the preparation for Everton. A strong lineup and one that can get a result.
Starting XI Prediction
This is the strongest lineup I feel Chelsea can field in the game against Arsenal. I don’t expect this to be the lineup Tuchel fields and I expect their to be a lot of changes during the game. As always fitness and young players impressing is the main point of a pre-season game. This one happens to be against Arsenal and their is a trophy at stake as well. COME ON CHELSEA!!!