The contentious fall out from the League Cup final – heralded in the media as ‘Kepagate’, has continued to dominate the build-up to Chelsea’s crucial match against London rivals Tottenham, and it could be easy to get sidetracked and neglect the importance of this game both to Chelsea’s season and Maurizio Sarri’s long-term future.
Wednesday night’s match, however, has taken on seismic ramifications and a performance similar to the one shown in the final is necessary to arrest the Blues’ malaise since the turn of the year.
Whilst Raheem Sterling’s spot-kick resigned Sarri to losing out on another chance to back up his footballing methods with a first professional trophy, the Italian has to quickly turn his attention to the game.
A near full strength side is available to Sarri after Pedro returned to the fold against City, whilst Harry Kane made a goalscoring comeback from injury at Burnley for Tottenham.
Here’s the XI that I think Sarri will select for the game:
