Chelsea predicted line-up vs. Brentford: two major changes made as £91m duo dropped

Chelsea will be aiming to make it four Premier League matches unbeaten when they face Brentford in Saturday’s lunctime kick-off. The Blues have seemingly turned something of a corner under Mauricio Pochettino after a rocky start to the campaign, and would have taken nine points from the last three outings were it not for Arsenal’s late comeback at Stamford Bridge last week.

For their part, the Bees arrested a slump of their own with a commanding 3-0 win over Burnley last time out, and now find themselves 14th in the table. A relatively unfancied victory this weekend would take them above Chelsea, however, as well as giving them a timely boost ahead of a fiendish run of upcoming fixtures that includes clashes with the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, and West Ham.

But how will both West London clubs line-up on Saturday afternoon? We’ve taken a closer look at the latest team news from each and posted our predicted starting XIs accordingly...

Chelsea Team News

Last weekend’s 2-2 draw against Arsenal was a bumper affair in terms of players returning from injury for Chelsea, with Reece James, Malo Gusto, Benoit Badiashile, Axel Disasi, and Nicolas Jackson all named in their matchday squad. The Blues received further positive news this week too, with suggestions that summer signing Christopher Nkunku - still yet to play for his new club - could be back in action before the turn of the year following a knee complaint.

In the more immediate future, there will be hopes that Armando Broja is available to feature against Brentford having missed out on last weekend entirely, but Romeo Lavia, Trevoh Chalobah, and Carney Chukwuemeka remain out. Ben Chilwell could be sidelined for the next two months and Wesley Fofana is set to miss a considerable chunk of time with a ruptured ACL.

Chelsea Predicted XI

Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Thiago Silva, Axel Disasi, Levi Colwill; Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Conor Gallagher; Raheem Sterling, Cole Palmer, Mykhailo Mudryk.

Brentford Team News

Brentford also have their fair share of absences to contend with as they head into the weekend. Ivan Toney, of course, remains out of action following his ban for breaches of betting regulations, and he is joined in his watching brief by an array of significant talents. Josh Dasilva is a doubt due to a hamstring strain, while Shandon Baptiste, Keane Lewis-Potter, and Mikkel Damsgaard are also expected to be touch and go. Aaron Hickey withdrew from Scotland’s squad during the international break, and having missed out on last weekend’s 3-0 win over Burnley, could be sidelined again.

In more definite news, Rico Henry is facing a lengthy period out of the side after damaging his ACL, while Kevin Schade could be missing for anything up to nine weeks after undergoing surgery on a hip abductor. The German striker initially picked up the complaint during a recent 3-1 defeat to Everton.

Brentford Predicted XI

Mark Flekken; Kristoffer Ajer, Nathan Collins, Ethan Pinnock, Vitaly Janelt; Frank Onyeka, Christian Norgaard, Mathias Jensen; Yoane Wissa, Neal Maupay, Bryan Mbeumo.