Dele Alli (£8.4m) has dropped down to the Spurs bench for Saturday lunchtime’s key trip to Chelsea.
The out-of-form midfielder showed his frustrations after being substituted during their midweek Champions League loss to RB Leipzig and he, alongside Serge Aurier (£5.0m), are victims of Jose Mourinho’s switch to a five-man defence.
Both managers have seemingly plumped for a formation change, with Frank Lampard choosing three centre-backs and the attacking width of Reece James (£5.0m) and Marcos Alonso (£6.0m). The Spaniard’s only two league starts since Gameweek 10 have come against Spurs.
Willy Caballero (£4.8m) is again given the nod in goal over Kepa Arrizabalaga (£5.5m), whilst Olivier Giroud (£6.5m) is given only his second league start of the season with Tammy Abraham (£7.6m) not deemed ready to start.
The 22-year-old was described as “at about 70 per cent having not trained much recently” in Lampard’s press conference but has at least made the substitutes bench, as does Willian (£7.0m) – the scorer of both goals when these sides met in December.
Spurs are still trying to find a way to score goals in the absence of Harry Kane (£10.8m), further worsened by the fractured arm sustained by Son Heung-min (£9.9m) during last Sunday’s 3-2 win at Aston Villa.
With both out of action for months rather than weeks, Mourinho has put his faith in Lucas Moura (£7.1m) and new signing Steven Bergwijn (£7.5m). The former has scored in FA Cup clashed with Southampton and Middlesbrough but not in the league since Gameweek 17’s trip to Wolves.
Bergwijn, on the other hand, grabbed the opening goal on his debut against Manchester City. Signed for £27m from PSV Eindhoven, he has made an impressive start to life in North London.
Finally, in the absence of Christian Pulisic (£6.9m) and N’Golo Kante (£5.0m) – out for around three weeks after suffering a muscle injury against Man United – there’s a welcome return to the squad for Ruben Loftus-Cheek (£6.3m) after rupturing his Achilles in pre-season.
Chelsea XI (3-5-2): Caballero; Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Christensen; James, Jorginho, Kovacic, Barkey, Alonso; Mount, Giroud
Tottenham Hotspur XI (5-3-2): Lloris; Tanganga, Sanchez, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies; Winks, Ndombele, Lo Celso; Bergwijn, Lucas.
4 years, 2 months agoGiroud has been criminally underused. Great goal.