Predicted XI: Enzo Maresca forced to drop 3 key players as he builds towards crucial week | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca is at this very moment probably thinking about what team to pick tomorrow, and it’s one of the trickiest selections he will have all season.

An early kick off coming on the back of the international break – but with the two biggest games of the season coming up next week. It’s so hard to predict how strong he goes to face Burnley, knowing Arsenal and Barcelona are on the horizon.

Chelsea have huge number of questions as Maresca looks to strike a balance

Enzo Maresca speaks in his Burnley press conference.

In goal, of course it’s going to be Robert Sanchez. But after that, it gets tricky.

Anyone who wants to play both games next week probably can’t start tomorrow. So to keep Reece James fresh Malo Gusto probably starts at right back. In the middle, we could see Benoit Badiashile return to action alongside Trevoh Chalobah, so that the fragile Wesley Fofana can play both games next week.

Marc Cucurella played twice for Spain and will want to play twice next week, so he probably rests with Jorrel Hato coming in at left back.

In midfielder, we found out Moises Caicedo only returned to Cobham last night after playing 2 games across the Atlantic. So expect a rested Enzo Fernandez to play with Andrey Santos in midfield, and Caicedo to be no more than a sub.

The attack should be sorted –  Liam Delap leads the line, Alejandro Garnacho and Pedro Neto start out wide after nice rests in the last fortnight. Joao Pedro only played a handful of minutes for Brazil, so he can play, assuming he’s not saved for next week.

In other presser news…

Burnley are going to put up a serious fight tomorrow, and Maresca has already been getting some excuses in early ahead of the game…

As mentioned above, Moises Caicedo is not likely to play tomorrow after Maresca admitted that the midfielder had only just come back from international duty last night.