Hazard benched for Chelsea’s opening Double Gameweek 32 fixture

The first of two Premier League matches to be contested on Sunday takes place at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Chelsea, who have lost four of their five away league fixtures in 2019, are the visitors to South Wales. Kick-off is at 14:05 BST.

Both of these sides have two fixtures in Gameweek 32 and are in action again on Wednesday night.

The headline team news from Cardiff is unquestionably Eden Hazard‘s first Premier League benching since Gameweek 11.

Maurizio Sarri had suggested on Friday that the Belgian winger, along with N’Golo Kante and Olivier Giroud, was tired after his exertions for his national team and indeed not one of those three players start for the Blues this afternoon.

Sarri has just told Sky Sports:

At the moment, Kante has played 50 matches this season and Hazard 47.

They both played with the national team, Hazard for 187 minutes and Kante for 175 minutes and so I think that it’s time to rest.

Pedro and Willian, who both had the international break off, have been chosen to flank Gonzalo Higuain in the visitors’ attack. Callum Hudson-Odoi is also among the substitutes.

Hazard has made three appearances off the bench for Chelsea in the top flight this season and registered attacking returns in all of them (three assists).

The Belgium international was transferred in by over 200,000 managers ahead of Gameweek 32 (as well as featuring in thousands upon thousands of Free Hit teams) and was the third-most-popular captaincy choice. Just under 50,000 FPL bosses used their Triple Captaincy chip on him.

Elsewhere in the Chelsea starting XI, Marcos Alonso retains his place at left-back and joins a familiar-looking defence alongside Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger.

Kepa Arrizabalaga starts in goal, as expected.

Cardiff are unchanged from the team that beat West Ham 2-0 in Gameweek 30, with Joe Bennett and Harry Arter shaking off fitness concerns to start.

The Bluebirds have lost all eight of their meetings against “big six” sides this season, conceding 27 goals in the process.

Cardiff City XI (4-2-3-1): Etheridge; Peltier, Bennett, Morrison, Manga; Arter, Gunnarsson; Murphy, Camarasa, Hoilett; Niasse.

Chelsea XI (4-3-3): Kepa; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso; Barkley, Jorginho, Kovacic; Pedro, Higuain, Willian.