Predicted XI: Liam Rosenior’s big decisions over Cole Palmer and midfield pair only go one way | OneFootball

Chelsea’s team at the weekend to play West Ham turned out to be a disaster – Liam Rosenior was forced to make 4 changes by the end of half time to get his team back into it.

That did at least mean a 45 minute for some starters ahead of tonight’s EFL Cup semi final second leg. So who will Rosenior pick tonight to try and overcome a 3-2 deficit against Arsenal?

Chelsea to play their strongest team to try and turn around Arsenal struggle

Chelsea players celebrate at final whistle. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Robert Sanchez should play in goal, barring anything very funky from Rosenior. Reece James only played for ten minutes on Saturday, so he’ll be ready to go tonight.

Wesley Fofana played 45 minutes, so even with his treatment plan he should be able to play alongside Trevoh Chalobah tonight. Marc Cucurella also played 45 against West Ham and should be fine tonight.

That’s our favoured back four right now, and further forward we expect a similarly strong team. Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez both need a break but can’t be left out for this one, despite playing 90 minutes in our last two games. Andrey Santos didn’t feature against the Hammers and will be fresh to add some physicality against Arsenal.

Cole Palmer is being treated carefully, and we only expect to see him in the second half tonight.

Pedro Neto will come back in to play on the wing, with Alejandro Garnacho likely to join him, despite his first half struggles on Saturday, just because of a lack of other options.

Joao Pedro is in hot form and should start, with Liam Delap back on the bench for this one.

In other news…

David Datro Fofana has completed a loan move to Strasbourg, a risk without doubt given his patchy loan history.

Liam Rosenior’s starting team against West Ham conceded two goals and could have been four down at half time. Jamie Carragher took a look at why they struggled and how Liam Rosenior changed things.