Nathaniel Chalobah for Nemanja Matic
The Serbian has been excellent over the past few games but Chalobah’s good performances off the bench should see him start this league cup. His assist for Victor Moyes’ goal against Leicester was simply spectacular and a decent performance from this Chelsea youth product should cement his place in Conte’s squad.
Willian for Pedro
Pedro scored the opener against Manchester United and put on quite a decent show all in all. But Willian should return to the line-up following his absence owing to his mother’s death, for which he had returned to his native Brazil.
Michy Bathshuayi for Diego Costa
Batshuayi looked like quite a decent player when he scored early into his Blues career. Those goals made it seem like he would give Conte a selection headache for matters upfront. But it has been a different case altogether due to Diego Costa’s fine form which has seen the Spaniard score 7 goals. That makes him the top scorer in the Premier League. The Belgian should look to make the most of such opportunities.
Conte might just choose to make more changes but he shouldn’t as it might change the team’s dynamics to a very large extent. David Luiz and Azpilicueta have been good in defence. Kante has been eccentric and will look to continue his fine form. Hazard should not be benched as the Belgian is in a rich vein of form and he must be unleashed against a West Ham defence that has been quite shambolic at times this season.
Predicted line up; Begovic, Azpilicueta, David Luiz, John Terry , Victor Moses, N’golo Kante, Chalobah, Marcus Alonso, Eden Hazard, Willian, Batshuayi
Kick off – 6:45 pm GST, 26th October