Wolverhampton Wanderers travel to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea on Saturday as they look to get themselves out of the relegation places, in what is the first game after Bruno Lage’s sacking.
The Portuguese manager was relieved of his duties at Molineux after the 2-0 defeat against West Ham United, with James Collins and Steve Davis set to be in the dugout as the Old Gold’s interim management duo in London.
Things couldn’t be much tougher for them, as Wolves travel to west London low on confidence and with a multitude of injury and suspension problems, so it will be a huge ask if they want to pick up a result against the Blues.
Here is how Football FanCast expects Wolves to line up against Chelsea for this afternoon’s Premier League clash…
Jose Sa unsurprisingly keeps his place in between the sticks, having kept three clean sheets in the Premier League so far this season.
Changes are needed in defence, as Nathan Collins is still suspended after his red card against Manchester City, while Ruben Neves also misses out due to suspension, so cannot fill in at centre-back as he did against West Ham.
This suggests that Toti is likely to partner Max Kilman in the heart of the defence, with Jonny and Nelson Semedo lining up at full-back.
In the absence of Neves, Boubacar Traore looks likely to make his first start in midfield, alongside Portuguese duo Joao Moutinho and Matheus Nunes.
There are more injury problems in attack as Pedro Neto, Sasa Kaladjzic and Raul Jimenez all miss out, which suggests that Diego Costa could get the nod to make his full debut up front.
He is flanked by Daniel Podence and Adama Traore, with Goncalo Guedes dropping out after some poor recent performances.
The £27.5m Portugal international was tipped to be “absolutely fantastic” for Wolves but has no goals and just one assist in the Premier League thus far, so Traore starts ahead of him in the fourth and final change from last week as he can definitely cause the Chelsea defence problems with his pace on the counter-attack.