After back to back wins against Reading and Barcelona, Chelsea head to Austria not just in search of another win but also a marked improvement upon their defensive efforts, having shipped five goals in their last three pre-season outings.
There is, of course, an obvious caveat to this problem, first-choice keeper’ Kepa Arrizabalaga has only played 45 minutes since his return to the first-team squad and thus the defence has not been at full strength.
However, experienced heads such as David Luiz, Emerson and Cesar Azpilicueta are well acclimatised to the rigour of pre-season football there are obvious issues, especially from set-pieces that must be resolved quickly.
The penultimate game of our pre-season tour sees us take on Austrian Bundesliga champions RB Salzburg, who are gearing up for what’s expected to be yet another year of domestic dominance – they have won seven of the last eight league titles on offer.
The one player most at risk of inflicting more damage upon Chelsea’s vulnerable defence is diminutive Japanese forward Takumi Minamino, whose versatility and ability to drop in and out of space should cause problems as the Blues have shown themselves to be particularly poor at tracking their markers on the edge of the box.
N’Golo Kante has joined up with the squad after his injury worries, but it is yet to be seen whether Lampard will risk him in order to field a team more in tune with the one that will take on Manchester United in a couple of weeks.
Here is how we predict Chelsea to line up…
